William Pierce Owen
The story now returns to the children of Rev. Elias Owen. His second son was William Pierce Owen who was born in Llanllechid on Tuesday, 20 November 1860. He attended Friars School Bangor until 1877, where he regularly won school prizes, acted in theatrical productions and was an all-rounder in the school cricket XI, as well as playing football for the school. From 1879 he studied Law at Christ College, Brecon. After passing the final exams of the Incorporated Law Society in the summer of 1885 [North Wales Chronicle, 18 July 1885] he was articled to Mr. Osbert Edwards, having been with Messrs Louis and Edwards, Ruthin.
William was an excellent footballer, an amateur Welsh international, as were his brother Elias and two of his cousins, sons of Timothy Morgan Owen. William played for Ruthin, one of the leading North Wales teams of the day (they narrowly missed winning the Welsh Cup in 1880). The first of his twelve consecutive international appearances between 1881 and 1884 was when England beat Wales 2 - 3 at Wrexham in only the second meeting between the two countries.
He was a winger but could play wing half equally well. He scored two of the goals in Wales’s 7 - 1 victory over Ireland at Wrexham on 13th March, 1882 and two more in their 6 - 0 victory over Ireland the following year. His international appearances took him to Glasgow, Blackburn, London and Belfast; home matches were played at Wrexham.
Both he and his team-mate and great friend Llewelyn Kenrick became solicitors and represented the FAW at the international association board meetings. William practised law for a short time in Bala before settling in Aberystwyth; in 1915 his practice was at 3 Baker Street.