File FR1/1 - Letters A-D

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FR1/1

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Letters A-D

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  • 1882-1919 (Creation)

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77 items

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David Robert Daniel (1859-1931), political commentator, was born at Ty'n-y-bryn, Llandderfel, Merionethshire, on 6th May 1859, son of Robert Daniel and Jane Roberts. He was educated at the grammar school and the Independent College, Bala, and became Assistant Organiser in North Wales for the United Kingdom Alliance in 1887. He was appointed Secretary of the North Wales Quarrymen's Union in 1896, and from 1889 was an alderman for the Caernarvonshire County Council. He later joined the Civil Service, and became Secretary of the Royal Commission on Coast Erosion and later, Assistant Secretary to the Welsh Church Commissioners. He was a close friend of Thomas Edward Ellis and became a figure in the Welsh political scene during the late 19th century. He also contributed various articles to the Welsh newspapers, including recollections of O. M. Edwards in Cymru, 1921 and a history about the early life of T. E. Ellis. He died in 1931 and was buried at Cefnddwysarn.

Name of creator

Biographical history

John Humphreys Davies (1871-1926) of Cwrt Mawr, Llangeitho, county Cardiganshire, was a distinguished academic, author and bibliographer who became Registrar of the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, in 1905 and thereafter served as its Principal from 1919 until his death.
He was born at Llangeitho on 15 April 1871, the third son of Robert Joseph Davies, and was educated at the local village school, Lewis School, Pengam and University College School, London. Thereafter he studied at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, and Lincoln College, Oxford, where he graduated BA in 1893. He was then called to the Bar at Lincoln's Inn.
At a very early age he entered the public life of Wales and his native county, becoming JP for Cardiganshire and treasurer of the General Assembly of the Calvinistic Methodist connexion. His interest in Welsh history, antiquities and literature was heightened by his close association while at Oxford with figures like O. M. Edwards and Thomas Edward Ellis, who married Davies's sister Annie.
Following his appointment as Registrar at Aberystwyth, Davies was well placed to collaborate with Sir John Williams in securing the town as the location of the National Library of Wales. The institution was to become the home of the magnificent Cwrt Mawr collection of books and manuscripts. He also became a member of the highly contentious Welsh Church Commission in 1908, was chosen high sheriff of Cardiganshire in 1911 and chairman of the Cardiganshire County Council in 1917.
J. H. Davies was extremely prominent in Welsh public life throughout the first quarter of the twentieth century. He was one of the founders of the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Society and contributed regularly to its Journal, and he served as the editor of the Journal of the Welsh Bibliographical Society from 1910 until 1920. In 1916 he was appointed editor of Cylchgrawn Cymdeithas Hanes y Methodistiaid Calfinaidd. As Principal of the university college he made a major contribution towards strengthening the bonds between his college and the federal University of Wales and also between the college and the Welsh nation.
He devoted much of his leisure time to the collection of Welsh books and manuscripts, and soon became a highly regarded authority in these fields. Among Davies's many important publications are The Letters of Lewis, Richard, William and John Morris of Anglesey (1907-1909), Gweithiau Morgan Llwyd, Vol. II (1908), A Bibliography of Welsh Ballads (1909-1911), and Letters of Goronwy Owen (1924). He also published a large number of articles in an array of periodicals and journals.
J. H. Davies died at Cwm Cynfelin, Aberystwyth, on 10 August 1926, and was buried at Llangeitho.

Name of creator

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John Glyn Davies (1870-1953), a Celtic scholar, was born in Liverpool, the son of John Davies, a tea merchant, and his wife Gwen, the daughter of John Jones (1796-1857) of Tal-y-sarn, Caernarfonshire, a celebrated Methodist preacher. He received his education at the Liverpool Institute, and worked for two sailing boat companies before being employed in 1899 as librarian of the Welsh Library of the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, which was intended to form the nucleus of a national library of Wales. He left in 1907 for Liverpool University's Celtic Department, where he was head of department from 1920 until his retirement in 1936. His published works include collections of songs for children, Cerddi Huw Puw (1923), Cerddi Robin Goch (1935) and Cerddi Portinllaen (1936), many of which are based on sailors' songs he had heard during his youth, and a posthumous book of poems, Cerddi Edern (1955). He assembled the Tanycastell collection of papers, books and paintings relating to his ancestral Davies and Jones families, particularly John Jones of Tal-y-sarn (1796-1857), and manuscripts of Welsh poetry, including the Henblas manuscript and Gwallter Mechain manuscripts.

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The file includes letters from D. R. Daniel (1), 1914, J. Glyn Davies (3), 1903-1907 and J. H. Davies (2), 1918.

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Preferred citation: FR1/1

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vtls004166161

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(WlAbNL)0000166161

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  • Text: FR1/1 (2).