Memorial Service for Geoff Evans

The chapel was full - eventually. The actual funeral took place in Porthcawl, so the family and the contingent from Hay who had gone down there had quite a journey to get back to Hay.
Ann Watkins, the secretary of the chapel, opened the proceedings with a short prayer, and then it was over to the family. Geoff's two sons, Tom and Patrick, talked about their memories of their father, and a friend of Geoff's, Philip Jones, talked about his influence on the Welsh art scene. He said that what Geoff had done was to make opportunities for artists that otherwise might never have been available, through his gallery in London, and later with Welsh Contemporaries and the gallery at Salem Chapel. There was music, too, on tape and live from Patrick Evans and Tommy Brooks - I don't know what they were playing on their electric guitars, but it was beautiful. Another of Geoff's friends recited some of Dylan Thomas's poetry - the beginning of Under Milkwood and a poem called In My Craft or Sullen Art. He had intended to read out the poem, but at the last minute decided to recite it from memory, mistakes and all, just as Geoff had heard it from him, because it had made Geoff smile.
He was a much loved man, who had led a fascinating life, and in his last days he was very much involved with a scheme to restore the chapel and convert it and the schoolroom into both a place of worship and an arts centre. Chris Bradshaw spoke about this - Geoff had been undecided about what to call the arts centre. Should it be named after Richard Burton, or the seventeenth century minister who founded the chapel? Chris thought that the best name for it now would be the Geoff Evans Arts Centre, and got the first applause of the evening - as it was a service, I think people had been nervous about clapping the various poems and music before this.
There were refreshments and teas and coffees in the schoolroom after the service (delicious sausage rolls and cakes, among other things) and there I met a lady who used to sit beside Geoff at Welsh classes. She said that, more than once, the class had been locked out of the community centre, and Geoff had brought them all round to the schoolroom gallery to have the lesson, and made tea and coffee for them - which was typical of his generous nature.
There's an obituary of Geoff in the Hereford Times, and another one was up on the wall of the gallery, along with lots of old photos of Geoff, from a local paper in Camden.