Sir Guildhaume Myrddin-Evans (17 December 1894 – 15 February 1964) was a Welsh senior civil servant and

labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

expert.

Early life

Guildhaume Myrddin-Evans was the son of the Rev. Thomas Towy Evans, and his wife Mary (née James). He attended Cwmtillery Elementary School, Abertillery County School, Llandovery College and

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church ( la, Ædes Christi, the temple or house, '' ædēs'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, the college is uniqu ...

, where he received a first class honours degree in mathematics.

Family

In 1919 he married Elizabeth, daughter of Owen Watkins, Sarn, Caernarfonshire. They had two sons. Myrddin-Evans was a member of the Council of the

Baptist Union of Great Britain and Ireland Baptists Together (officially The Baptist Union of Great Britain) is a Baptist Christian denomination in England and Wales. It is affiliated with the Baptist World Alliance and Churches Together in England. The headquarters is in Didcot. H ...

from 1943 and served as secretary of the Baptist Chapel in Bloomsbury, London.

Career

He joined the South Wales Borderers on the outbreak of the First World War and served as a lieutenant in France and Flanders. In 1917 he was badly injured and joined David Lloyd George's personal secretariat before being appointed as assistant secretary to the War Cabinet in 1919. He worked at the Treasury between 1920 and 1929 before moving to the

Ministry of Labour The Ministry of Labour ('' UK''), or Labor ('' US''), also known as the Department of Labour, or Labor, is a government department responsible for setting labour standards, labour dispute mechanisms, employment, workforce participation, training, a ...

where he became deputy chief insurance officer in 1935. He attended the Hague Conferences on Reparations in 1929 and 1930. In 1938, he was appointed head of the International Labour Division of the Ministry of Labour. In 1941 he was appointed as head of the Production Executive Secretariat in the

Cabinet Office The Cabinet Office is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for supporting the prime minister and Cabinet. It is composed of various units that support Cabinet committees and which co-ordinate the delivery of government objecti ...

and in 1942 served as a labour consultant to the governments of Canada and the United States. In 1942 he returned to the Ministry of Labour and National Service as under-secretary before being promoted to deputy secretary in 1945. In this role he was the UK Government's representative to the

International Labour Organisation The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency whose mandate is to advance social and economic justice by setting international labour standards. Founded in October 1919 under the League of Nations, it is the first and ol ...

until 1959 and was its chair three times. Between 1955 and 1959 he was the Chief International Labour Adviser to the UK Government. On his retirement in 1959 he was appointed to chair the

Local Government Commission for Wales The Local Government Commission for Wales was established by the Local Government Act 1958 to review the organisation of local government in Wales and to make recommendations for its reform. It delivered its report in 1963 and was dissolved in 1967. ...

. The commission issued its report in 1963. Myrddin-Evans was awarded the CB in the 1945 honours list and the KCMG in the 1947 honours list. His archive was donated to the

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 ...

in 2019.

Publications

* Myrddin-Evans was the co-author of ''The Employment Exchange of Great Britain'' (1934).

References

External links

*
Sir Guildhaume Myrddin-Evans in the ''Dictionary of Welsh Biography''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Myrddin-Evans, Guildhaume 20th-century British civil servants International Labour Organization people 1894 births 1964 deaths People from Abertillery People educated at Llandovery College Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford Welsh Baptists South Wales Borderers officers British military personnel of World War I