Gwenc'hlan Le Scouëzec
Gwenc’hlan was born in Brittany, France. His father was Maurice Le Scouëzec, a painter. Gwenc’hlan spent most of his childhood in Madagascar, Paris, Landivisiau and Douarnenez, before doing his secondary studies in Saint-Vincent de Pont-Croix, Saint-Yves de Quimper and Saint-Grégoire de Tours, in 1942. There, he took part in the Breton Scouts movement Bleimor. He pursued higher studies in history at La Sorbonne in Paris.
He did military service between 1951 and 1953 in the French Foreign Legion at Sidi-bel-Abbès and Daya in Algeria. He was a teacher of French in Crete and Athens from 1953 until 1957, when he was recalled to the French Foreign Legion at the 5th Foreign Regiment. After his military service ended in 1958, he became a professor at the French Institute of Athens, as well as in Saint-Didier-en-Velay in Versailles.
As of 1960, he started to study medicine, and completed this with distinction in the Faculty of Medicine of Paris. He worked as a doctor at Quimper from 1969 until 1985. He also initiated Skoazell Vreizh, the Breton emergency service, together with Xavier Grall and Yann Choucq in the 1970s. He was a participant of the "Colloque Bretagne" in 1973. He wrote the preface in Morvan Lebesque's book Comment peut-on être Breton? (How can we be Breton?). In 1985, he founded the publishing business Beltan. He promoted the work of his father, the painter Maurice Le Scouëzec.
He became Deputy Grand Druid within the "Poellgor" (executive committee of the Gorsedd) on 1 April 1979, then he became the Grand Druid of Brittany, succeeding Per Loisel, on 1 November 1980. The association Goursez Vreizh (Gorsedd of Brittany), also known as "Breudeuriezh Drouized, Barzhed hag Ovizion Breizh" in Breton or "Fraternité des druides, bardes et ovates de Bretagne" in French (Fraternity of the Druids, Bards and Ovates of Brittany), represents neo-druidism most regularly.
Gwenc’hlan is the fifth Grand Druid of our time, according to the Gorsedd de Bretagne. In November 1993 he united a group of Freemasons, forming "loge maçonnique de la pierre pour ensuite y instaurer le rite maçonnique forestier" (a freemason lodge of the stone, to preserve the masonic forest rites).
26-30, F