Grafton Melville Richards (1910-1973) was a Welsh scholar in the field of Welsh language and literature and Celtic studies.
Early life
He was born on 29 September 1910 as the third son of William and Elizabeth Richards (his father was a railway foreman) in
Ffair-fach, Llandybie,
Llandeilo
Llandeilo () is a town and community in Carmarthenshire, Wales, situated at the crossing of the River Towy by the A483 on a 19th-century stone bridge. Its population was 1,795 at the 2011 Census. It is adjacent to the westernmost point of the B ...
, Carms. Grafton Melville Richards married Ethyn Anne Bowen in Llanelli in July 1939 and had a son and daughter. He was educated at Neath Grammar School and went onto achieve a first-class (1:1) Honours degree in Welsh from the University College of Swansea, (now
Swansea University
, former_names=University College of Swansea, University of Wales Swansea
, motto= cy, Gweddw crefft heb ei dawn
, mottoeng="Technical skill is bereft without culture"
, established=1920 – University College of Swansea 1996 – University of Wa ...
) starting in 1928 and finishing in 1931.
Academic beginnings
In 1933, he gained a research M.A. with distinction. Following on from that, he was elected to a University Fellowship in 1934 which enabled him to continue his studies in
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
with the scholars,
Osborn Bergin
Osborn Joseph Bergin (26 November 1873 – 6 October 1950) was a scholar of the Irish language and early Irish literature, who discovered Bergin's Law.
He was born in Cork, sixth child and eldest son of Osborn Roberts Bergin and Sarah Reddin, a ...
,
Myles Dillon
Myles Patrick Dillon (11 April 1900 – 18 June 1972) was an Irish scholar whose primary interests were comparative philology, Celtic studies, and Sanskrit.
Life
Myles Dillon was born in Dublin; he was one of six children of John Dillon and h ...
and Gerard Murphy, as well as in Paris with
Joseph Vendryes
Joseph Vendryes or Vendryès (; 13 January 1875, Paris – 30 January 1960) was a French Celtic linguist. After studying with Antoine Meillet, he was chairman of Celtic languages and literature at the École Pratique des Hautes Études. He found ...
,
Antoine Meillet
Paul Jules Antoine Meillet (; 11 November 1866 Moulins, France – 21 September 1936 Châteaumeillant, France) was one of the most important French linguists of the early 20th century. He began his studies at the Sorbonne University, where he was ...
and
Émile Benveniste
Émile Benveniste (; 27 May 1902 – 3 October 1976) was a French structural linguist and semiotician. He is best known for his work on Indo-European languages and his critical reformulation of the linguistic paradigm established by Ferdinand ...
. In October 1936, he was given the position of Research Assistant Lecturer in Welsh at Swansea University and later became Assistant Lecturer in April 1937. This followed the dismissal of
Saunders Lewis
Saunders Lewis (born John Saunders Lewis) (15 October 1893 – 1 September 1985) was a Welsh politician, poet, dramatist, Medievalist, and literary critic. He was a prominent Welsh nationalist, supporter of Welsh independence and was a co-found ...
following the
Tân yn Llŷn, and he faced criticism for taking the post under these circumstances. However, he was already a member of staff and an assistant lecturer at the time. Melville Richards published his work in academic journals on the syntax of the sentence in Medieval Welsh and revealed his ability early in his career as he was one of a number of language scholars that were associated with
Henry Lewis.
War service at Bletchley Park
During the Second World War, Melville Richards was attached to
Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park is an English country house and estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes ( Buckinghamshire) that became the principal centre of Allied code-breaking during the Second World War. The mansion was constructed during the years following ...
. His name is listed on the Bletchley Park roll of honour with the grade of FO (Foreign Office) civilian; he served at Bletchley Park between 1941-1945 in Hut 9A, Elmers School, Hut 18 and Block G, ISOS (Illicit Service Oliver Strachey. ISOS was responsible for
Abwehr
The ''Abwehr'' (German for ''resistance'' or ''defence'', but the word usually means ''counterintelligence'' in a military context; ) was the German military-intelligence service for the ''Reichswehr'' and the ''Wehrmacht'' from 1920 to 1944. A ...
communications using manual codes and ciphers. He used his experiences at war to write his only novel ''Y Gelyn Mewnol'' (The Enemy Within), an espionage story set in West Wales which won the Bangor National Eisteddfod thriller novel competition in 1943.'' ''The novel tells the story of a British Secret Service operation to frustrate a fictitious German Fifth Column action in West Wales. The plot involves a Welsh-speaking British Secret Service agent with a background somewhat similar to Melville Richards himself. It features documents recovered from a U-boat sunk by the RAF in Cardigan Bay and the solution of a cryptogram intercepted by MI5. The novel was published in book form by Llyfrau'r Dryw in 1946.'
Post-war academic career
After the end of the war, he returned to Swansea University where he was appointed Lecturer (where he stayed until 1947), then he became Reader and Head of Celtic Studies Department in
Liverpool University
, mottoeng = These days of peace foster learning
, established = 1881 – University College Liverpool1884 – affiliated to the federal Victoria Universityhttp://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/2004/4 University of Manchester Act 200 ...
. From there, he was elected to the Chair of Welsh at the
University
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...
College of North Wales,
Bangor in 1965. He gained a PhD from Liverpool 1965.
Celtic studies and Welsh syntax
Melville Richard's first areas of interest in his research were Celtic studies and Welsh syntax. In his early research, he published ''Llawlyfr Hen Wyddeleg'' in 1935 which was a handbook based on
Rudolf Thurneysen
Eduard Rudolf Thurneysen (March 14, 1857 – 9 August 1940) was a Swiss linguist and Celticist.
Biography
Born in Basel, Thurneysen studied classical philology in Basel, Leipzig, Berlin and Paris. His teachers included Ernst Windisch and H ...
's magisterial 'Grammar of Old Irish'. In 1938, he published ''Cystrawen y Frawddeg Gymraeg'' which is a clear guide to the syntax of the sentence in modern Welsh. However, it was unfavourably reviewed by T. J. Morgan in ''Y Llenor''. He continued to work on the syntax of Middle Welsh and Early Modern Welsh and published a number of texts including ''Breuddwyt Ronabwy'' (
The Dream of Rhonabwy
''The Dream of Rhonabwy'' ( cy, Breuddwyd Rhonabwy) is a Middle Welsh prose tale. Set during the reign of Madog ap Maredudd, prince of Powys (died 1160), its composition is typically dated to somewhere between the late 12th through the late 14th c ...
) (1948). His area of research started changing in the early 1950s as he started to publish work on Welsh place-names and onomastics which led on to be his primary academic interest.
Place names of Wales
He single-handedly produced an historical archive of place-names in Wales and made clear their meaning and significance in a comprehensive Welsh onomasticon. His research was conducted in a range of fields of study which are: settlement patterns and demography, the history of governance and administration, legal custom and structures, toponyms as well as the more strictly linguistic area. Melville Richards did not succeed in publishing his place-names research as he intended but his archive of 300,000 slips, which is held by the Archives and Special Collections at Bangor University Library, has been edited and is available online (transcribed in Welsh and English).
Melville Richards published a translation of ''
Llyfr Blegywryd'',
[Williams and Powell, 1942] ''
The Laws of Hywel Dda
''The'' () is a grammatical Article (grammar), article in English language, English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite ...
'' (1954),
Cyfraith Hywel
''Cyfraith Hywel'' (; ''Laws of Hywel''), also known as Welsh law ( la, Leges Walliæ), was the system of law practised in medieval Wales before its final conquest by England. Subsequently, the Welsh law's criminal codes were superseded by the ...
and an edition of the manuscript Jesus College LVII (1957), ''Welsh Administrative and Territorial Units'' (1969) as well as editing ''Atlas Môn'', an Atlas of Anglesey in Welsh and English in 1972. He also published important articles explaining the significance of place-names and laying out the methodology and scholarly standards in a hazardous area of academic study. Some of his research and work brought him international recognition. For example, 'his contributions to the Batsford ''The names of towns and cities in Britain'' (1970), as a member of the council of the English Place-Name Society, a member of the International Committee on Onomastic Sciences and chairman of the Council for Name Studies of Great Britain and Ireland...'
End of life
Around 1970, his health deteriorated. He died unexpectedly at home in
Benllech
Benllech (; ) is a large village on the Isle of Anglesey in Wales. It is in the community (Wales), community of Llanfair-Mathafarn-Eithaf, which has a population of 3,382, making it the fourth largest settlement on the island of Anglesey. The na ...
,
Anglesey
Anglesey (; cy, (Ynys) Môn ) is an island off the north-west coast of Wales. It forms a principal area known as the Isle of Anglesey, that includes Holy Island across the narrow Cymyran Strait and some islets and skerries. Anglesey island ...
on 3 November 1973. His funeral service was held in Colwyn Bay Crematorium on 8 November.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Richards, Grafton Melville
1910 births
1973 deaths
Welsh scholars and academics