‘Reluctant Redhead’ poet Eluned Phillips’ centenary was celebrated by the Cenarth community on Monday.

The local Community Council officially opened the memorial garden in Cenarth, dedicated to Eluned on the 100th anniversary of her birth last week, and unveiled a stone in her memory alongside an information board.

Last week saw the culmination of five years of work to celebrate the life and work of local poet Eluned Phillips, whose centenary fell on the same day as Dylan Thomas.

Well known and respected, both locally and internationally, Eluned was an inspiring character who gathered friends and admiration wherever she travelled.

She was the only woman to have won the Crown at two National Eisteddfods, 1967 and 1983, and was admired as a wonderful storyteller and raconteur.

Her stories are legendary, some of which are included in her 2007 memoir “The Reluctant Redhead”.

Her association with the bohemian lifestyle of the early part of the 20th century is well recorded, as she rubbed shoulders with such luminaries as Augustus John, Jean Cocteau, Maurice Chevalier, Pablo Picasso and Edith Piaf, with whom she formed a friendship which lasted over the years.

As a vice President of the South Wales Male Choir, she travelled the world and was dubbed Wales' best unofficial ambassador. The choir formed the focal point of a 2012 concert held at Rhosygilwen to mark Eluned's contribution to Welsh culture. Proceeds were distributed locally to part fund a sensory garden at the primary school in Cenarth and provide four Welsh oak stools, fashioned by local builder and entrepreneur, Emyr Thomas, from timbers recovered from an old property at Cwmcou.

Last Thursday 15 pupils from the local primary gathered with parents, staff and local residents at the memorial garden, where the Community Council has been responsible for establishing in the riverside garden,.

The children read from a recently published anthology of their own poems, a project funded by the memorial fund.

Broadcaster, singer, and close friend of Eluned, Gwenno Dafydd, was compere for the evening and spoke of the powerful influence Eluned had had on her own career.

Around 60 people then attended a supper evening at Penlan Holiday Village, where there was storytelling and singing by Gwenno of a collection of Piaf songs.

She said: “It was a really wonderful celebration, and a very fitting gesture in memory of Eluned.”

On Friday, Rhian Jones was announced as winner of the Eluned Phillips £1,300 Centenary Bursay, to enable an author, either born or living in Wales, to follow a three month novel writing course, run by Curtis Brown Creative in London.

Organisers Andrew Gilbert and David Llewelyn paid tribute to everyone who had contributed to the various projects as they closed the memorial fund.

They said: “We wish to thank all those who have contributed to the various projects, too many to thank individually, and trust that those who knew Eluned will feel that the above initiatives adequately reflect the love, affection and respect which this remarkable character deserved.

“However, mention must be made of headmistress Rhianydd James, who had the original idea for the poetry anthology and whose diligence saw the project through to completion. It would be most fitting if one of the local schoolchildren was to become a poet of note in the future.”