OBITUARY ,

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Welsh c^

Dr ELwyn Davies, art ou t - s tanding figure in the cultural life of Wales, died oh Septern - fier ' 18 aithe age of 77^; V- ~ .: He was 'born on September 2Qr 19C>8, 'the son oftlie : Rev Ben Davies, a well-known Congregational rnihisten At Aberystwyth,' arid ;; later at Manchester ,' he ^ studied geog - raphy . and ranthrppology , in the process losing the religious beliefsipf his chiWKood, while retaining a deep attachmentio the secular! values of Welsh Nonconformity. ' ' . - "" . \. . ' - . In 1934, heberame ' a jectur - er at Manchester under his teacher ,<Professor H. L Fleure. After , war service :in naval intelligence between A 941 and 1945, he moved to Cardiff, where he held a number of important administrative posts . - From 1945 to 1963 he was secretary to the Council of the University of Wales, secretary to the Board of Celtic Studies, and secretary to the Universi - ty Press Board. In this last capacity he was responsible for a marked improvement in the quality of Welsh book production, as well as for the publication of many scholarly volumes. . ' ',:. In, 1963 , he was appointed to succeed Sir Ben Bowen Thomas'as permanent secre - tary to the Welsh Department of the Ministiy of Education, which became the Welsh r De - partment of the ; DES. From this post he retired fn 1969. But he remained extremely