David Tegfan Davies

David Tegfan Davies OBE FRAS (27 February 1883 – 10 August 1968) was a Welsh Congregational minister. He was raised by his grandparents, Dafydd and Hannah Dafis of Abergwili, Carmarthenshire. On completing his education at the local school, he entered employment as a farm labourer at a farm in Rhyd-y-Rhaw, Peniel. Whilst there he began to attend services at Peniel Congregational Church, and it was there, in 1903, that he began to preach. Following a period studying at the Old College School in Carmarthen, he moved, in 1905, to attend classes at Bala-Bangor College. He was ordained minister in September 1908 at Seion, Pontypridd, and from there moved to Addoldy, Glynneath, where he was inducted in January 1911.[1]

In 1915, during WW1, he relocated again to become minister of Gellimanwydd (Christian Temple), Ammanford, where he would remain for the next 50 years. During the severe Post WWI economic depression and the Great Slump that began in 1929, poverty and unemployment in Ammenford was so extreme that childhood malnutrition and lack of clothing except for remnant coal sacks became commonplace; Davies became chairman of the local 'Distress Committee' and was able to "twin" the town with a parish in Merseyside, Liverpool, that provided sufficient funds to prevent actual starvation.[2] An unusually high proportion of young people from Ammanford went on to academic research careers, a fact that several of them later credited to Davies' influence.[3][4]

He was much travelled, venturing around much of Europe on cargo ships from Swansea, and to the United States on a preaching tour.[1] He was in the United States in July 1924.[5]

His writings include, Cyn Dringo'r Mynydd Du, O Ganol Shir Gâr, and Rhamantwr y De and Cyffro'r Hen Goffrau, which telling of old Carmarthenshire beliefs and rural amusements, reveal his vivid imagination.[1]

In 1965 he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in acknowledgement of his humanitarian acts and for his bravery on many occasions in rescuing persons in danger of drowning.[6] He was credited with twelve life-saving rescues.[7] Davies was also a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.[4]

He died in 1968, and was buried in Gellimanwydd cemetery.[1]

References
  1. Williams, Griffith John. "David Tegfan Davies". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 21 March 2017.
  2. Rhys, Steffan (11 September 2007). "When the quality of Mersey was not strained but dropped on Wales". Western Mail. ProQuest 341660120.
  3. ""Gold Standard" for today's 16-year-olds: Professor Wyn Roberts (Cardiff University) of The Learned Society of Wales". Western Mail. 28 December 2011. ProQuest 912854143.
  4. "Intellectual demands of regarded as the 'Gold 1945 maths papers should be Standard' for today's 16-year-olds: September is Welsh Education Month in the Western Mail. We're asking leading members of the schools, colleges, higher education, political and academic scene to debate the following: Education in Wales must do better. Discuss". Western Mail. 17 September 2011. ProQuest 890546594.
  5. Dr. and Mrs. R. J. Ritz Attend Family Reunion, The Scranton Republic (Scranton, Pennsylvania), July 10, 1924, page 7, accessed March 22, 2017 at https://www.newspapers.com/clip/9729552//
  6. "To be ordinary officers of the Civil Division of the said Most Excellent Order". The Gazette. 4 June 1965. p. 5482.
  7. "Minister to the rescue...again". South Wales Guardian. 10 June 2012. Retrieved 21 March 2017.
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