My father, David Meurig Thomas, who has died aged 82, was an ambassador for Wales and the Welsh language. It was one of his life’s proudest moments to be sworn into the Druidic Order at the National Eisteddfod Gorsedd of Bards for his services to Welsh culture and tourism. He wore the white robes with pride.
The grandson of Sirhowy Valley colliers, David Meurig showed an early gift for languages. His parents, Marion (nee Morgan) and Jack Thomas, both teachers, encouraged this. David Meurig spent his teenage summers in Dusseldorf and Brittany, in return hosting his German and Breton penpals in Hengoed and showing them south Wales.
Having learned Welsh at Lewis school, Pengam – where his fellow pupils included the future rugby player John Dawes and politician Neil Kinnock – David Meurig studied modern languages at University College London. Fluent in French and German, able to get by in Dutch, Flemish, Italian and Russian, he spent university holidays guiding coachloads of package tourists around Europe.
On graduating, he joined the Ford motor company in Essex as a Middle East salesman, using his command of Swiss German to woo Vienna-born Krista Habianitsch, who worked at his local in Witham. After a whirlwind courtship and winter wedding in Vienna in 1965, the couple moved to South Wales to start their family.
As Welsh Office information officer from 1966, David Meurig showed visiting VIPs the wonders of Wales. He joined the Wales Tourist Board and in 1973 moved to Colwyn Bay, to manage the North Wales office.
A proud Welsh speaker, he presented Wales through its people and its living cultures. He loved to work with European writers and reporters, regaling them in their languages with tales from Welsh history, music, folklore and rugby.
Those stories resurfaced on air and in print, in Peter Sager’s definitive German-language Pallas Guide to Wales, in reports for the German broadcaster Deutsche Welle and in the US paper the Christian Science Monitor, whose astonished reporter described David Meurig reeling off a 12th-century englyn poem in ancient Welsh, completely off the cuff.
In retirement from 1993, David Meurig continued to travel, and became active in the Labour party in south Wales.
He is survived by Krista, my brother, Iestyn, and me.
