Auguste Guyard

The Town
The Beginnings
The Name
The Port
Roads & Railway

Historical People
John Ruskin
Fanny Talbot
Auguste Guyard
Major H.W. Tilman
Harold Godfrey Lowe
W. W. Greener

Historical Events
Bronze Bell Wreck
Battle of Barmouth

Miscellaneous
Barmouth Milestones
Old Newspaper Report

Acknowledgements

In one of the walls of a narrow path above the cottages of old Barmouth is a metal plaque honouring Auguste Guyard and marking his grave. Often referred to as "The Frenchman" in the Barmouth that I grew up in, Monsieur Guyard, an educationalist and philosopher, fled the siege of Paris during the Franco-Prussian war and became the tenant of one of the Fanny Talbot cottages, 2, Rock Gardens, at the invitation of Mrs. Talbot, his daughter's mother-in-law.

Auguste Guyard was an extraordinary man with friends and acquaintances that included Napoleon III (exiled in Chislehurst, Kent following the French Prussian war of 1870), Victor Hugo, who entrusted Auguste and his wife with the care of his much loved white Persian cat before going into self-exile in Guernsey, Alphonse de Lamartine, a man who is to the French today what Keats or Shelley are to us. He had many other eminent friends and one of his books, enshrining his creed and called "Rights and Duties" was cherished by Leo Tolstoy, read to his children each day and translated into Russian. He also wrote a book called "The religion of God, of the Universe and of Humanity" in which he espouses his "Fusionism" a universal formula for living life in God.

M. Guyard had attempted to create a 'commune modele' in his home village of Frotey-Les-Vesoul (Haute-Saône), where he was born in 1808. His aims closely resembled those of John Ruskin whom he befriended and got to know through Fanny Talbot. He sought to redress poverty and liberty in those communities. He was incarcerated in France for his philosophy and eventually exiled himself in Britain, resting in Barmouth with the help of his daughter's mother-in-law, Fanny Talbot. (Fanny's son had travelled to Paris to study painting and the fine arts where he met and married Auguste's daughter. Later, when she died, he married Auguste's second daughter). Auguste  became a popular figure in Barmouth and grew herbs and vegetables in the terraced gardens of 'The Rock' as well as medicinal plants to help the poor. He also had a way with animals and tamed a hawk and a Jackdaw. He had a beloved sheepdog named "Cara". He knew Robert Owen, "Bardd y mor" (Bard of the Sea) before he left for Australia at the age of 20 and likely plied his educational skills to help educate this talented young man.

His grave (He died in 1882) lies above the cottages in Barmouth. I have enlarged each section of the epitaph (pictured as it is - in the wall above) here:

French Section

Welsh Section (below)

English Section (below)

In the words of Archdeacon Wallis Thomas, "Wherever in God's wide universe he may be today, may we all meet someday in that land where exile is banished, where none grind the faces of the poor whom you loved so dearly, where truth reigns, which you cherished and where good men are not denied their reward."

"Salut mon ami, Au revoir, Merci"

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Monsieur Georges Rech, Director of the Archives départementales de la Haute-Saône for providing the above picture of Auguste Guyard.

Also, I would like to thank Mrs. Betty O'Dell of Murmur y Don, Church Street, Barmouth for providing me with a taped recording of Archbishop Wallis Thomas' passionate delivery of the story of Auguste Guyard to the W.I. in Barmouth. Mrs. O'Dell was kind enough to invite me into her home and provided me with various materials relating to the history of Barmouth.

Monsieur Rech has provided me with some additional material about August Guyard and, with his permission, I hope to expand the story of this remarkable man prior to his arriving in Barmouth and update this page in the near future.