Thomas Gee (24 January 181528 September 1898), was a Welsh Nonconformist preacher, journalist and publisher. Gee was born in

Denbigh Denbigh ( ; ) is a market town and a community (Wales), community in Denbighshire, Wales. It was the original county town of the Denbighshire (historic), historic county of Denbighshire created in 1536. Denbigh's Welsh name () translates to ...

, Wales. At the age of fourteen he went into his father's printing office,

Gwasg Gee Gwasg Gee was a publishing firm founded by a printer, Thomas Gee, in 1808 and taken over by his son, a more famous Thomas Gee, during the 1830s and based in Denbigh, Wales. The name means "Gee Press". In 1914, the business passed out of the hand ...

, but continued to attend the grammar school in the afternoons. In 1837 he went to London to improve his knowledge of printing, and on his return to Wales in the following year, he threw himself into literary, educational and religious work. Among his publications were the well-known quarterly magazine '' Y Traethodydd'' ("The Essayist"), '' Y Gwyddoniadur Cymreig'' ("Encyclopaedia Cambrensis"), and Dr. Silvan Evans; ''English-Welsh Dictionary'' (1868), but his greatest achievement in this field was the newspaper ''Baner Cymru'' ("The Banner of Wales"), founded in 1857 and amalgamated with ''

Yr Amserau ''Yr Amserau'' (established in 1846 by William Rees and John Jones) was a bi-weekly Welsh language newspaper, distributed in Merseyside and North Wales. It covered local and national news, supporting radical and nonconformist principles The popul ...

'' ("The Times") two years later as ''

Baner ac Amserau Cymru The ''Baner ac Amserau Cymru'' (established in 1857) was a weekly Welsh language newspaper, distributed throughout Wales and in the Liverpool area. It contained local and national news and information. It was formed by the amalgamation of ''Baner ...

''.

This paper soon became regarded as an oracle in Wales, and played a great part in promoting the

nationalist Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation,Anthony D. Smith, Smith, A ...

and

home rule Home rule is the government of a colony, dependent country, or region by its own citizens. It is thus the power of a part (administrative division) of a state or an external dependent country to exercise such of the state's powers of governan ...

movement in the country. In educational matters he waged a long and successful struggle on behalf of undenominational schools and for the establishment of the intermediate school system. He was an enthusiastic advocate of church

disestablishment The separation of church and state is a philosophical and jurisprudential concept for defining political distance in the relationship between religious organizations and the state. Conceptually, the term refers to the creation of a secular s ...

, and had a historic newspaper duel with John Owen (afterwards

Bishop of St David's The Bishop of St Davids is the ordinary of the Church in Wales Diocese of St Davids. The succession of bishops stretches back to Saint David who in the 6th century established his seat in what is today the city of St Davids in ...

) on this question. The

Eisteddfod In Welsh culture, an ''eisteddfod'' is an institution and festival with several ranked competitions, including in poetry and music. The term ''eisteddfod'', which is formed from the Welsh morphemes: , meaning 'sit', and , meaning 'be', means, a ...

found in him a thorough friend and a wise counsellor. His commanding presence, mastery of diction, and resonant voice made him an effective platform speaker. He was ordained to the

Calvinistic Methodist The Presbyterian Church of Wales (), also known as the Calvinistic Methodist Church (), is a denomination of Protestant Christianity based in Wales. The Calvinistic Methodist movement has its origins in the 18th-century Welsh Methodist revival ...

ministry, at

Bala Bala may refer to: Films * ''Bala'' (1976 film), an English-language dance documentary * ''Bala'' (2002 film), a Tamil-language action film * ''Bala'' (2019 film), a Hindi-language black comedy Life forms *Bala shark (''Balantiocheilos melano ...

in 1847, and gave his time and talents ungrudgingly to

Sunday school ] A Sunday school, sometimes known as a Sabbath school, is an educational institution, usually Christianity, Christian in character and intended for children or neophytes. Sunday school classes usually precede a Sunday church service and are u ...

and Temperance movement, temperance work. Throughout his life he believed in the itinerant unpaid ministry rather than in the settled pastorate. In 1886 he founded the Welsh Land League to campaign for the rights of tenants. He was active in local politics as a

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * Generally, a supporter of the political philosophy liberalism. Liberals may be politically left or right but tend to be centrist. * An adherent of a Liberal Party (See also Liberal parties by country ...

. He was a member of Denbigh Town Council for many years (including a term as mayor), and he was the first chairman of

Denbighshire County Council Denbighshire County Council is the unitary authority, unitary local authority for the county of Denbighshire, one of the principal areas of Wales, principal areas of Wales. The council is based at County Hall, Ruthin, County Hall in Ruthin. Ther ...

from its creation in 1889; a position he held until his death in 1898. Gee attended the founding meeting of the Welsh National Liberal Council in August 1898, and was elected as the organisation's president. He died in September, and his funeral was at the time the most imposing ever seen in northern Wales.

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