Elwyn Davies (20 September 1908 – 18 September 1986) was a Welsh university and cultural administrator, civil servant, writer and academic. Born on 20 September 1908,"Dr Elwyn Davies", ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' (London), 23 September 1986, p. 14. . Davies was the son of Congregationalist minister, Ben Davies (1878–1956); his brother was Alun Davies, who became a professor of history at Swansea University."Davies, Elwyn, 1908–1986"
''

National Library of Wales The National Library of Wales ( cy, Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru), Aberystwyth, is the national legal deposit library of Wales and is one of the Welsh Government sponsored bodies. It is the biggest library in Wales, holding over 6.5 million boo ...

''. Retrieved 2 February 2022. Elwyn attended the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, and the

University of Manchester , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...

, completing a

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

at the latter in 1937. Davies was appointed a

lecturer Lecturer is an List of academic ranks, academic rank within many universities, though the meaning of the term varies somewhat from country to country. It generally denotes an academic expert who is hired to teach on a full- or part-time basis. T ...

at Manchester in 1934, serving under H. J. Fleure. He was in

naval intelligence Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist commanders in their decisions. This aim is achieved by providing an assessment of data from a ...

for four years during the Second World War, after which (in 1945) he was appointed secretary to the council of the University of Wales, serving until 1963; he was also secretary to the board of the

University of Wales Press The University of Wales Press ( cy, Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru) was founded in 1922 as a central service of the University of Wales. The press publishes academic journals and around seventy books a year in the English and Welsh languages on six general ...

. In 1963, he was appointed

Permanent Secretary A permanent secretary (also known as a principal secretary) is the most senior Civil Service (United Kingdom), civil servant of a department or Ministry (government department), ministry charged with running the department or ministry's day-to-day ...

of the Welsh Department of the Ministry of Education; the next year, he took on the equivalent role in the newly formed Department of Education and Science. After retiring in 1969, he was chairman of the Welsh Library Council and president of the

, the latter from 1977 to 1986. He died on 18 September 1986. An obituary in ''

'' noted that he had, "unaccountably", not received any state honours for his work, but he received an honorary doctorate from Manchester. He was also a writer, producing works on

transhumance Transhumance is a type of pastoralism or nomadism, a seasonal movement of livestock between fixed summer and winter pastures. In montane regions (''vertical transhumance''), it implies movement between higher pastures in summer and lower vall ...

and Welsh place names and rural communities.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Davies, Elwyn 1908 births 1986 deaths Welsh civil servants Alumni of Aberystwyth University Alumni of the University of Manchester Academics of the University of Manchester