Preferred citation: C2/6.
John Glyn Davies (1870-1953), a Celtic scholar, was born in Liverpool, the son of John Davies, a tea merchant, and his wife Gwen, the daughter of John Jones (1796-1857) of Tal-y-sarn, Caernarfonshire, a celebrated Methodist preacher. He received his education at the Liverpool Institute, and worked for two sailing boat companies before being employed in 1899 as librarian of the Welsh Library of the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, which was intended to form the nucleus of a national library of Wales. He left in 1907 for Liverpool University's Celtic Department, where he was head of department from 1920 until his retirement in 1936. His published works include collections of songs for children, Cerddi Huw Puw (1923), Cerddi Robin Goch (1935) and Cerddi Portinllaen (1936), many of which are based on sailors' songs he had heard during his youth, and a posthumous book of poems, Cerddi Edern (1955). He assembled the Tanycastell collection of papers, books and paintings relating to his ancestral Davies and Jones families, particularly John Jones of Tal-y-sarn (1796-1857), and manuscripts of Welsh poetry, including the Henblas manuscript and Gwallter Mechain manuscripts.
Published
The letters, 1896-1916, are generally very lengthy giving full accounts of their author's activities and travels. Many refer to events and developments at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, notably its Welsh Library for which he was responsible from 1899 until 1907. His activities and difficulties at the Welsh Library are discussed in some detail. Some of the letters discuss John Glyn Davies's reading and researches and some his prospective applications for posts.