Rhodri Morgan was born to be First Minister, not only because he had the names Rhodri and Hywel, but because of his character and personality. It wasn’t apparent to his own party on two occasions, but, at the third attempt, as Lesley Griffiths has reminded us—three tries for a Welshman—he became leader of a party, an Assembly, a Government and a nation. We needed someone in the early days of devolution who would encapsulate in his personality the nature and quality of devolution, and Rhodri was that individual. The concept of devolution was vague. It was difficult to understand what it meant for the person in the street, in the shop, the surgery or the school, but everyone could turn to Rhodri Morgan and fully understand that this is what devolution is—our own leader.

When Rhodri Morgan spoke of ‘clear red water’, he was aiming his comments at his own party, yes, but they were important words for the whole nation. They gave people who were cool about devolution permission to embrace it, saying, ‘Yes, you can be British, a devolutionist, a nationalist, and still be part of the Labour family’. In simple words, he encapsulated the complexities and the benefits of devolution.

I have no doubt that we wouldn’t be meeting today as a Parliament with full powers if it weren’t for Rhodri Morgan. Others and other parties played a full part too, but Rhodri’s commitment to the agreement made in the One Wales Government to call and to campaign for a referendum for a full Parliament was always solid and robust. That was true, strong leadership. It was a pleasure and, as the First Minister told us, it was often a lesson, for me to work for him during that time.

I will allow others who were more friend than colleague, as I was, to talk more about his unkempt appearance and his hair at times—and the fact I remember that someone had to go a long way to fetch a pair of decent shoes for him to appear at a conference. I will just say that this was his character and his personality. It’s what kept his feet on the ground, and it was not something that was created to hide the true personality, as we find with some politicians and some others.

Roeddwn i yn adnabod Julie yn dda cyn i mi adnabod Rhodri, gan y buom ni’n gweithio sawl blwyddyn yn ôl yn y sector gwirfoddol yng Nghymru, ac roeddwn i hefyd yn adnabod Julie fel Aelod Seneddol yn San Steffan. Hoffwn gyfleu fy nghydymdeimlad dwysaf ar fy rhan fy hun, ac ar ran fy nheulu hefyd, i Julie a'i theulu. Gadawodd hi a Rhodri farc annileadwy arna i ac ar fy nheulu hefyd, oherwydd, yn fy nyddiau cynnar yn San Steffan, wrth siarad â Julie, cefais ar ddeall fod gan Rhodri a Julie le cyfrinachol iawn, lle a oedd yn fy etholaeth i bryd hynny, sef carafán ym Mwnt. Roedd hyn yn swnio'n syniad hyfryd o ramantus, ond, yn bwysicach, roedd yn swnio fel yr hyn oedd yn cadw Rhodri a Julie a phawb arall yn gall a dynol mewn bywyd o wleidyddiaeth. Felly, o fewn blwyddyn, roedd gen i fy ngharafán fy hun ar arfordir Ceredigion, er fy mod yn byw yn Aberystwyth. [Chwerthin.] Mae hynny wedi cadw fy nhraed ar y ddaear, a’m cadw yn ddynol a chall, gobeithio. Rwy'n gobeithio y bydd arfordir Ceredigion yn dod â llawer o atgofion melys i chi am Rhodri a'r amser a dreuliasoch ym Mwnt ac am eich teulu yn y fan honno hefyd.

As one who studied Welsh at university, I did know Rhodri Morgan’s father, T.J. Morgan, who was a scholar and is well known to anyone who’s studied the Welsh language. He was also a master of the ‘ysgrif’, which is a particular type of Welsh prose, which takes that minor issue and expresses its huge importance, and Rhodri Morgan himself was a master of that art, although he did it orally, rather than on paper.

But I did get hold of a collection of essays by Rhodri Morgan’s father, T.J. Morgan, and read it over the weekend to remind me of the humour and the ability to have broad-ranging interests that Rhodri also inherited. And this quote struck me. T.J. Morgan, Rhodri Morgan’s father, talks about ‘arddel’, and Rhodri Morgan would always make that connection and emphasise the importance of espousing where one was from, where one’s family is from, and everything else. He says of the name ‘Morgan’: that Morgan who gave his name to Glamorgan is too vague, and there are too many Morgans in Glamorgan and throughout south Wales generally, for one family to take the name as their inherited right. That may be so, but through his work and his contribution, Rhodri Morgan claimed the whole of Wales and made it Glamorgan.