People

Sir John Perrot was born in November 1528, probably at Haroldston, now a ruin outside the town. The popular myth that he was the natural son of Henry VIII has no foundation in fact. He was educated at St David's before going to London in 1546. When he came of age he was introduced to the court of Edward VI and knighted. Though a committed Protestant who harboured heretics at Haroldston, for which he was imprisoned, he survived the reign of Queen Mary.

He found favour with Queen Elizabeth who appointed him Lord President of Munster in 1571 and Lord Deputy of Ireland from 1584 to 1588. He was made Privy Councillor in 1589. He was appointed sheriff of the county of Pembroke in 1552 and vice admiral of South Wales in 1562. He was elected for MP for Pembrokeshire in 1563 and was Mayor of Haverfordwest in 1570, 1575 and 1576. In 1580 he devised certain properties, the rents and profits of which were to be expanded on improvements to the town. The Perrot Trust is administered by trustees appointed by the Town Council with co-options.

Perrot's hasty temper and brawling nature, more that anything, led to the charges of treasonable activity for which he was sentenced to death, but he died in the Tower in June 1592 before sentence could be carried out.

Sir Thomas Picton was born in Haverfordwest in 1785 and, before he was thirteen he was a gazetted ensign in the 12th Regiment of Foot. He saw action in the West Indies and when Trinidad surrendered he was appointed military governor. He fought in the Peninsular War, having been prompted to Major-General, but his name was omitted from the list of generals raised to the peerage after the campaign.

When Napoleon escaped from Elba, Picton was called to command the 5th Division at Quatre Bras, where he was severely wounded, yet fought at Waterloo the day after. He charged the enemy several times before he was struck in the temple by a Musket Ball. Parliament erected a monument to his memory in St. Paul's Cathedral, and King George III contributed towards the Picton Memorial at Carmarthen. Thomas Moore wrote a poem in his honour and a portrait of him hangs in the National Portrait Gallery.

John Lort Stokes was born in Scotchwell, Haverfordwest, on 1st August 1811 and went to sea when he was twelve years old.

In 1825 he joined H.M.S. Beagle and served on her three great voyages when he rose from midshipman to commander and captain of the ship. When Charles Darwin sailed on the Beagle as a naturalist from 1831 to 1836, Stokes worked with him 'on the same table in the poop cabin of the Beagle…he with his microscope and myself with the charts'.

Stokes discovered and named Port Darwin and he advocated the name 'Tasmania' for that island. He narrowly escaped death when speared by an Australian Aborigine.

His late voyages are recorded in his Discoveries in Australia…during the Voyage of the Beagle 1837-1843. In 1848 he took command of H.M.S Acheron and carried out a survey of the coasts of New Zealand. He was later promoted to Admiral. He died in 1855 and lies buried at St David's Church, Prendergast.

Henry Owen was born in 1844, the son of William Owen, JP, DL, contractor and cabinetmaker, of Withybush. He was educated at Cowbridge and at a Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He entered the legal profession and became a Doctor of Civil Law. He was a magistrate and a deputy lieutenant and was a sheriff of the county of Pembroke in 1902. He was the author of 'Gerald the Welshman' and 'Old Pembroke Families' and he edited George Owens 'Description of Pembrokeshire' and a 'Calendar of Public Records relating to Pembrokeshire'. He died in 1919 and bequeathed his valuable library between the National Library of Wales and the town of Haverfordwest. Sir John Philipps, 4th Baronet, of Picton, was known as 'the Good Sir John'. He was a leading figure in religious and philanthropic movements. He founded twenty-two schools in Pembrokeshire and was a patron of the educational reformer Griffith Jones, Llanddowror, and of the early Methodists. He was MP for the Pembroke Borough in 1693 and for Haverfordwest in 1718. His name is commemorated in the Old Bridge, which he had built in 1726, and on a monument in St Mary's Church. Admiral Sir Thomas Foley served with Lord Nelson at Cape St Vincent and at Copenhagen. He and Nelson were awarded the Freedom of Haverfordwest when Nelson visited Milford Haven in 1802, at a ceremony held at Foley House. This was the residence of John Foley, the Admiral's brother and was built by John Nash in 1794. The charter handed to Lord Nelson was later bought at a sale at Sotheby’s and presented to the Mayor and Corporation. Augustus John was born to a Haverfordwest solicitor and his wife whilst they were staying at Tenby avoiding an outbreak of scarlet fever in Haverfordwest in January 1878. He attended school in Tenby and went to Slade School of Art in London. He soon gained the reputation as a retrospective at the Royal Academy in 1954 and at the National Portrait Gallery in 1957. He contributed to the Journal of Gypsy Lore Society and published two volumes of autobiography, Chiaroscuro and Finishing Torches. He died in 1961. Gwen John, sister to Augustus, was born in Haverfordwest in 1876. She like her brother also studied at Slade. She studies briefly under Whistler before going to Paris where she met the sculptor Rodin for whom she modelled and with whom she had a ten year love affair. In her twenties she produced some fine portraits. She was a painter of women, cats, children and interiors. The last years of her life were spent in obscurity. When was broke out in 1939 she made for Dieppe where she collapsed and died. She is buried in an unknown grave. William Gilbert Rees, born at Derby Farm, Haverfordwest, emigrated to New Zealand and, having discovered new country suitable for running sheep, settled on Lake Wakatipu, where, his memorial states, he was 'pioneer and first settler of Queenstown'. He was a promising cricketer who gave his forenames to his more expert cousin and godson W.G.Grace. Waldo Williams who is considered by many to be 'the twentieth century's most astonishingly original poet in the Welsh Language', was born in Haverfordwest, the son of a schoolmaster at Prendergast, and was brought up in an English speaking home. He also graduated in English at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth. His poems appeared in Welsh Literary journals from 1926 onward but he was only persuaded to publish one volume. Dail Pren (the Leaves of a Tree) which appeared in 1956 and contains an immense range of poetry.