Identity area
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
Rees, Goronwy, 1909-
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Description area
Dates of existence
History
(Morgan) Goronwy Rees (1909-1979) was born at Aberystwyth on 29 November 1909, the youngest child of the Revd R. J. Rees (1868-1963), the minister of the famous Tabernacle Calvinistic Methodist chapel in the town. In 1923 the family moved to Roath in Cardiff and Goronwy Rees was educated at Cardiff High School for Boys (1923-1928) and New College, Oxford, where he graduated with first class honours in Politics, Philosophy and Economics. He was elected to a prize fellowship at All Souls College, Oxford, later undertook research at Berlin, and was a leader writer on the staff of the Manchester Guardian from 1932 until 1935. At the outbreak of the Second World War, Goronwy Rees mobilized as a gunner in the 90th field regiment. He saw active service in the war years with some distinction and held a variety of occupations thereafter. In 1951 he was appointed bursar of Old Souls College, Oxford, and from 1953 until 1956 he was the Principal of the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth. Now Rees's relationship with Guy Burgess, whom he had first befriended in 1934, returned to haunt him, especially in 1956 when the Principal published in The People newspaper a series of quite sensational articles about Burgess's activities and his lifestyle. Such was the local outcry at Aberystwyth that Rees himself felt that he had little alternative but to resign the position of Aberystwyth Principal the following year. Subsequently, facing financial difficulties, Rees developed a successful new career as a writer and journalist. His output included two fascinating and highly readable volumes of autobiography A Bundle of Sensations (1960) and A Chapter of Accidents (1972). He also appeared on the BBC television series The Brains Trust. Following the death of his wife in 1976, Goronwy Rees died at London on 12 December 1979. The precise truth about his associations with espionage and security during the years of the Cold War will always elude historians and writers.