Welsh Roots

Glyn Davies was born in 1919 in Abertillery in Monmouthshire, in South Wales and his family moved shortly afterwards to the nearby village of Aberbeeg. His full name was Glyndwr Davies, (named, by his patriotic parents, after Owain Glyndwr, the national hero of Wales who was called "Owen Glendower" by Shakespeare in Henry IV) but he was more commonly known as "Glyn". Although Monmouthshire is a fairly anglicised area nowadays, Welsh was the language used at home by his parents and brothers and therefore he did not learn English until he went to school.

One day while playing in the woods near Aberbeeg Infants School, he dislodged some strange, small coins lying in the ground and took them to his teacher. They turned out to be Roman and that was his first exposure to monetary history, a subject that was later to become a consuming interest.

His father, Price Davies, was a former coal miner, who started work underground in 1892 at the age of 11. The employment of children of that age for that type of work in Britain had been abolished by law about 20 years earlier, but in practice exceptions were made where the income a child of that age could earn was important for the family. As Price's own father had lost his own father when he was just 5 years old that applied in his case. Price met his wife, Annie, just after the Welsh Revival when they were brought together by their shared faith.

By the time Glyn Davies, the third of three brothers was born, (an elder sister and a younger brother both died as babies) his father's lungs had been affected by dust and in the fierce competition for jobs in the recession following World War I, was no longer able to find work as a miner. Therefore Price Davies repeatedly moved about South Wales in search of work and undertook a number of temporary jobs ranging from street gas lamp lighter to agricultural labourer in order to support his family while also undertaking work for his church.

The constant moving meant that Glyn Davies attended a great number of different schools with considerable disruption to his education. Nevertheless, growing up during the depression of the 1930s and seeing and experiencing its effects at first hand (At one stage a school nurse diagnosed him as suffering from malnutrition) stimulated an interest in economics, and the head teacher at the school he was attending in Llandrindod in Mid Wales urged him to apply to go to the University of Oxford.

As a knowledge of Latin was then a prerequisite for admission he began an intensive study of that language but 6 months later the family moved again and therefore he went to school in Tonypandy where, at that time, Latin was not taught, and therefore he applied to Cardiff instead. However, at Tonypandy he was taught by an enthusiastic economics teacher, Mr White, who entered him for the nationwide examinations of the Royal Society of Arts in economics in 1938, and Glyn Davies won the First Place and Medal.

Military Service in World War II

When the Second World War broke out Glyn Davies left university and joined the British Army without waiting to be called up and without first telling his parents. His mother would not have been keen on the idea since one of her brothers, William Thomas Griffiths, had been killed in the First World War and she had lost two other brothers who died as children. Another relation on her side of the family, William George Nicholas, was to die while serving with the Fourteenth Army, "the Forgotten Army", in Burma in 1944).

Glyn Davies served in an armoured reconnaissance regiment, the Royal Dragoons, part of the famed 7th Armoured Division or Desert Rats, (at various times it was part of other divisions instead, since divisions are not fixed formations) spending the best part of three years in the see-saw campaign in North Africa.

At the decisive battle of El Alamein in 1942, the Germans and Italians both thought the armoured cars of the Royals were those of their Axis partners and, taking advantage of this confusion, the Royal Dragoons passed within yards of the German artillery becoming the first troops in the British 8th Army to break through the enemy lines into the open desert.

In Sicily, while on reconnaissance, Glyn Davies was fortunate to escape, almost unscathed, from the wreckage of his armoured car after a direct hit by a shell which passed straight through the body of the driver, Ned Mole, who was sitting next to him. Subsequently he took part in the invasion of Italy before the regiment was transferred back to Britain to take part in the Normandy invasion and the campaign in northwestern Europe as part of the British 2nd Army. Near Hilvarenbeek in Holland he had another lucky escape when, as he was closing the door of his armoured car, it was suddenly knocked shut by a glancing blow from a shell that failed to explode.

Glyn Davies frequently shared his armoured car with Hugh Cholmondeley (Lord Rocksavage) who, after the war, became Lord Great Chamberlain and presided over the state opening of parliament. At the opposite end of the social scale, while in Italy along with other troops in ‘A’ Squadron, the Royal Dragoons, he sometimes shared his armoured car with a pig called Busty. He recounted the story of this amusing interlude in an article in the Army Quarterly and Defence Journal in July 1998, probably the only occasion on which a journal of military history, tactics and strategy has published an article about a pig!

After the 2nd Army crossed the Rhine he was reconnoitring the area near Belsen, ahead of the main advancing forces, when he heard a radio message in German discussing a typhus epidemic in the concentration camp there. He reported what he had overheard to headquarters and was ordered not to enter the camp but to carry on past it. There was typhus in Belsen, Anne Frank had died of it there just a few weeks earlier, but later on Glyn Davies couldn't help wondering if it was possible that some of the staff of the camp had wanted the message to be overheard in order to delay the entry of British soldiers and give them time to get away.

Denmark and the Aftermath of the Second World War

Immediately following the Germany surrender at Lüneburg Heath the Royal Dragoons, took part in the liberation of Denmark. Among the Germans taken prisoner was Lieutenant Otto Wendt von Radowitz, an aristocrat, and Glyn Davies was given the task of escorting him home to Germany on his release. (According to the orders given to Glyn Davies on 22 August 1945, the British Consulate in Copenhagen wanted von Radowitz to search for "some English documents of importance, believed to be in the safe at Falkenberg Castle"). Von Radowitz's mother showed her gratitude at seeing her son again by offering Davies a copy of Mein Kampf, signed by Hitler himself, but the offer was tactfully declined.

A more lasting result of his stay in Denmark was the meeting with the young Danish woman, Anna Margrethe, (or Grethe) who, in 1947, was to become his wife. Therefore when he returned to Cardiff, Glyn Davies was keen to complete his studies as quickly as possible so that he could start work and get married. However, he was told that after 6 years of absence he could not take an honours degree in less than two years so instead he settled for an ordinary degree and also took a diploma in eduction before starting work as a primary school teacher. That was the beginning of a career teaching children and students at all levels from 5 year olds to postgraduates. In his spare time he took University of London honours and masters degrees in economics as an external student.

Academic Career and Interests

The University of Strathclyde

In 1959 he left Canton High School in Cardiff, where he had been teaching economics, French and geography, and moved to Glasgow to become a lecturer at the Scottish College of Commerce which, a few years later, was to become part of the new University of Strathclyde, and rapidly gained promotion to senior lecturer. One of the subjects that occupied him was regional development and he drew attention to the paradox that labour shortages can exist in areas of high unemployment, thus making the task of attracting firms to such areas more difficult. He also emphasised the dangers of "regional economic civil war" as the poorer parts of Britain competed with each other for government assistance and inward investment.

At Strathclyde Glyn Davies encouraged inter-disciplinary research and chaired the University's Regional Studies Group which drew together economists, other social scientists, and engineers to study the problems of the Scottish economy. A typical example of the Group's work under his leadership was the Galloway Project, a study of the economy of south west Scotland undertaken for the Scottish Tourist Board.

The Welsh Office

In 1968, largely because of his work in the field of regional development, he was seconded from Strathclyde to the Welsh Office as the first person to hold the post of Senior Economic Adviser to the Secretary of State for Wales, who at that time was George Thomas, the future Lord Tonypandy and Speaker of the House of Commons who became a firm friend. At that time there was a serious lack of statistics on the Welsh economy and Glyn Davies played a significant role in remedying these deficiencies.

There was a backlog of facts to be extracted, such as the table of identifiable public expenditure in Wales that was included in evidence to the Crowther Commission on the Constitution (which was considering the arguments for devolution of power to Scotland and Wales) and the index of Welsh industrial production. This showed that by the end of the 1960s production in Wales was increasing more rapidly than in the rest of Britain but he repeatedly pointed out that it was not sufficiently fast to counter Wales's dismal economic legacy. Targets for the number of new jobs required were usually based on the number of registered unemployed but these took no account of the lower activity rates in Wales and therefore underestimated the scale of the problem.

One of the keys to attracting more firms to Wales was the improvement of the infrastructure and Glyn Davies was responsible for making the economic case for the extension of the M4 motorway from Cardiff to Swansea. Despite some opposition from within the Civil Service this was accepted and today all parts of industrial South Wales are within relatively easy reach of the motorway.

UWIST, Cardiff

In 1970 Glyn Davies became the first occupant of the Sir Julian S. Hodge Chair of Banking and Finance at the University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology, UWIST (which later merged with University College Cardiff to become Cardiff University) and held that post until his retirement in 1985. During that period he was also Chairman of the Wales Careers Advisory Council and Honorary Vice-President and Secretary of the Cardiff Business Club.

In association with Sir Julian Hodge he attracted a series of high-profile individuals to give lectures at UWIST, including two Governors of the Bank of England, Sir Leslie O'Brien and Robin Leigh-Pemberton, the Duke of Edinburgh, Pierre-Paul Schweitzer, (Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund), David Rockefeller (a banker and senior member of the American oil industry dynasty) and Sheik Ahmed Zaki Yamani, the Saudi Arabian oil minister whose influence on OPEC and the world economy was then still at its peak.

During the 1970s and 80s Cardiff developed as a financial centre, both through the establishment of branches of financial institutions from elsewhere in the UK and overseas, and through the creation of indigenous institutions among which was the Commercial Bank of Wales (later taken over by the Bank of Scotland), of which Glyn Davies was the economic adviser and subsequently also a director. Later on he became the economic adviser to another indigenous Welsh bank, the Julian Hodge Bank. He also undertook consultancy work for Berger, the paint manufacturer.

Among his publications while at UWIST was National Giro : modern money transfer, the first book about postal giro systems since the establishment of Britain's Giro. The foreword was written by James Callaghan who, three years later, was to become the British Prime Minister.

In Overseas investment in Wales Glyn Davies highlighted the way in which the Welsh economy, which had previously been dominated by heavy industries such as coal and steel, was being transformed by foreign investment from many countries, especially the United States, Germany and Japan. Two other publications, in which he combined his interests in regional development and monetary economics were European finance for development and Building societies and their branches.

Evidence to Government Inquiries

While at UWIST Glyn Davies submitted written evidence to a number of official enquiries, including the Page Committee to Review National Savings and the Wilson Committee to Review the Functioning of Financial Institutions. He also submitted both written and oral evidence to the House of Commons Committee on Welsh Affairs and was part of the CBI Wales delegation that was questioned by the Committee on Welsh Affairs when it was investigating the impact of EEC (EU) membership on business and industry in Wales.

Devolution of Power to Wales

Glyn Davies was always proud to be both Welsh and British and thought that there should be no conflict between these loyalties. After all, the Welsh had been British before the English were. He had always thought that the Welsh people should have control over their affairs just as the people of Bavaria in Germany, Catalonia in Spain or Prince Edward Island in Canada had over those of their own provinces. Therefore he became the chairman of the cross-party Campaign for a Welsh Assembly. The defeat in the referendum in 1979 was a big disappointment but he was naturally delighted when, a couple of decades later, devolution became a reality.

Retirement and A History of Money

On his retirement from the post of Sir Julian Hodge Professor of Banking and Finance in 1985, he was made an emeritus professor of the University of Wales and commenced 9 years of research leading to his most significant publication, A History of Money from Ancient Times to the Present Day. Lord Tonypandy wrote the foreword. In February 2002, after 4 weeks in hospital with a very serious illness, Glyn Davies immediately began work on revising the book to bring it up to date with developments such as the introduction of the Euro, and the third edition was published in the autumn of that year.

However his interests had never been narrowly academic. He and Grethe enjoyed travelling and visited members of their far flung family in Canada, Australia, Fiji, Peru and Trinidad. In April 1995, along with other former British soldiers and their wives, they were guests of the Danish government at the celebrations in Copenhagen to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the end of the Second World War and the liberation of Denmark.

Glyn Davies loved the Brecon Beacons and regularly walked up Pen y Fan, the highest mountain in South Wales. At the age of 81, he ruptured his achilles tendon in a race along a beach in Trinidad. Rugby was another passion and he rarely missed an international at the Arms Park or the new Millennium Stadium, now called the Principality Stadium. Even in the last few months of his life when illness made walking increasingly difficult and painful, he would walk through the crowds in central Cardiff and struggle up the six flights of steps to his usual seat near the top of the East Stand in the Stadium when Wales were playing at home. He died in 2003, leaving his wife, three sons, and a daughter.

Newspaper articles about Glyn Davies

Newspaper Articles

The modest missionary of a Welsh revolution. Western Mail, Friday January 15, 1971, p. 3.A review of Glyn Davies' career published one year after he took up the chair in banking and finance at UWIST.

Befrieren. Jyllands Posten, søndag d. 23 april, 1995. Tillæg om Befrielsen, side 2. "Glyn Davies fra Wales var med i El Alamein, invasionen af Sicilien, landingen i Italien, invasionen af Normandiet, slaget ved Arnhem og slaget ved Rhinen. Men han fandt verdenskrigens højdepunkter i Aabenraa, Kolding og Thorsmølle." (The Danish newspaper Jyllands Posten published a special supplement in April 1995 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Denmark. It included an article about Glyn Davies, his wartime experiences, how he met his wife Grethe, and his later career).

Best of times, worst of times. The Sunday Times magazine, 8 December, 2002, p.15-16. (This article is actually This article is actually about Linda Davies the City banker turned novelist, but it also contains a lot of information about her father, Glyn Davies".

Obituaries

The South Wales Echo, Friday 17 January 2003.

Daily Telegraph, Friday 24 January 2003.

The Times, Thursday 30 January 2003.

YY Gadwyn [the Link]: the Newsletter of the Toronto Welsh Community, January 2003.

The Rhondda Leader, Thursday 20 February 2003. (This obituary was written by Owen Vernon Jones, retired headmaster of Porth County Grammar School, who had known Glyn Davies ever since they both attended Tonypandy Grammar School in the 1930s).

The Guardian, Friday 28 February 2003. 9The Guardian's obituary was written by Gary Lakehurst who was professor of marketing at the University of Portsmouth at the time.

Royal Economic Society Newsletter, April 2003, p. 16.

The Service Industries Journal, vol. 23, no. 4, September 2003, p. 161-163. (A fuller version of the obituary that Professor Gary Akehurst wrote for the Guardian).

References to selected publications by Glyn Davies

Regional Development, Unemployment and Bankruptcy

Growing pains: questions concerning economic growth. Journal of the Scottish College of Commerce, vol. 7, no. 1, 1962, p35-41.

Regional economic civil war. Regional Studies Group bulletin ; no. 4. Glasgow : Strathclyde University, 1966, 21p.

The role of finance in Scotland's economic development. The Banker's Magazine, September 1966, vol. 202, p. 161-165.

Regional unemployment, labour availability, and redeployment. Oxford economic papers, March 1967, vol.19(1), p.59-74.

Labour supply shortages: causes, consequences and cures. Journal of economic studies, January-March 1968, Vol.3(1), p.25-53.

Getting the regions off the dole. The Sunday Times, 8 October 1967, p.55.

The Galloway project : a study of the economy of South West Scotland with particular reference to its tourist potential by the University of Strathclyde. Regional Studies Group. Edinburgh: Scottish Tourist Board, 1968 501p.

Towards a Welsh economic miracle? Economics: the Journal of the Economics Association, vol. 9, part 2, Autumn 1971, p.75-88. [How to make Wales prosperous so that it will not be perpetually dependent on regional aid].

The heart of the matter. The Scotsman, October 21, 1971, p. 12. [An article arguing that Scotland's economic crisis stems largely from the failure of the growth industries in the Central Belt and suggesting solutions. It was part of a series on the economic problems of Scotland in the Scotsman newspaper].

Full employment and growth can run together. The Building Societies' Gazette, April 1972, vol. 104, no. 1249, p. 280-283.

Llantrisant: why "no" news is bad news ... South Wales Echo, 5 February 5, 1974 p. 8. [An article criticising the decision to abandon plans for a new town in the Llantrisant area].

The needs of Wales. Credit : Finance Houses Association quarterly review, June 1975, p. 41-53.

Britain's bankruptcy crisis. The Banker, November 1975, vol. 125, no. 597, p. 1263-1267. [An article analysing the history of bankruptcy in Britain since 1919. By the early 1970s the number of bankruptcies was higher than at any time since the First World War, although their size in relation to the national income was less than it was for the peak years of the inter-war period. The article considered the likely future course of the crisis and the implications for bank management and the proper relationship between British bankers and industry].

Overseas investment in Wales : the welcome invasion by Glyn Davies and Ian Thomas. Swansea : C. Davies, 1976. 221p. ISBN 0-7154-0409-1. [The first detailed study of the effects on the Welsh economy of investment in Wales by firms based outside the UK].

West German direct investment in Wales ... a promising start. Cardiff: Development Corporation for Wales, 1978. [This report was commissioned by the Development Corporation for Wales as a tribute to Herr Friedrich Gladitz who was the Development Corporation's honorary consultant in Germany for eight years and was largely responsible for the growth of West German investment in Wales during that period].

Westdeutsch Direktinvestitionen in Wales ... ein vielversprechender Anfang. Cardiff: Development Corporation for Wales, 1978. [The German version of the report on West German investment in Wales].

Wales needs more small firms - urgently. Small Business no. 8, January 1978.

Profitability and Employment in United Kingdom Financial Services 1971-1981 by Glyn Davies and J. Wynne Evans. Service Industries Journal, November 1983, Vol. 3 no. 3, p241-259. [The article examines changes in employment and profits in the UK financial services sector between 1971 and 1981. Despite the severe recession, employment rose by just under 30 per cent, and profits by around 15 per cent. What is even more significant is that in every single region of Great Britain there was an increase in service employment so that by the 1980s there were more people employed in services in every region than in all other categories put together. This fact, had not previously been fully appreciated].

Regional Industrial Development: an economic assessment for CBI (Wales) by Glyn Davies. Service, 22 February 1984. 34 pages. [A survey covering regional policy in Britain and the problem of long-term structural unemployment with particular reference to Wales].

Articles in Welsh about the Welsh Economy

Cymru: cyfoethog neu dlawd? Dadansoddiad cymharol. Barn, Ionawr/Chwefror 1975, rhif 146, t. 581-584. [An article with a title meaning "Wales: rich or poor? A comparative analysis" published in Barn, January/February 1975, on the problems of the Welsh economy, low activity rates and the number of new jobs needed, and the need for investment from overseas. The title of the journal, Barn, is Welsh for "Opinion"].

1978 - 1979 Cyflwr economaidd y genedl. Barn, Rhafyr 1978 / Ionawr 1979, rhif 191/192, t. 482-484. [An article reviewing the state of the Welsh economy published in Barn, December 1978 / January 1979].

Money, Banking and Finance

The Regional Significance of I.C.F.C. Journal of Industrial Economics, Vol. 16, No. 2. April 1968, p. 126-146. [A detailed analysis of the work of the Industrial and Commercial Finance Corporation (ICFC) which was founded in 1945 as part of a post-war, Bank of England led initiative to fill what was known as the "Macmillan gap" (the failure of the City to supply long-term finance to small and medium-sized firms) Since 1983 it has been known as the 3i Group plc.].

Giro's two year hard slog. Banker, vol. 120, no. 536, p.1069-76, October 1970. [Glyn Davies' inaugural lecture, dealing with the implications of the influx of foreign banks to Britain].

Bank of Wales – Now. Wales Radical Cymru, no. 5, March 1971, p. 7. [An article, written for the Welsh Labour Party's newsletter, outlining the reasons that led to the establishment of the Bank of Wales].

How Wales's Bank will work. Western Mail, 10 March, 1971.

Growth and disposal of personal wealth in the 1960s. The Building Societies' Gazette, July 1971, vol. 103, no. 1239, p.642-646.

Will competition for deposits be orderly - or cut throat? The Building Societies' Gazette, vol. 103, no. 1240, August 1971, p. 738-744.

Giro unchained and recharged. Banker, vol. 122, no. 555, p.657-62, May 1972.

International Giros and the Clearing Banks. Euromoney, vol. 3, no. 12, May 1972, p. 15-20.

National Giro : modern money transfer, foreword by James Callaghan. London : Allen and Unwin, 1973. 246p. ISBN 0-04-332054-6. [This book discusses the antecedents of giro systems in Egypt in the time of the Ptolemies and Ancient Greece, the development of postal giro systems in Europe and Japan, the reasons why Britain was so late in establishing a giro bank, and the progress of the National Giro. Later its name changed to Girobank and in 1989 it was privatised by the Conservative government and acquired by Alliance and Leicester which, in turn, was later taken over by Santander].

European finance for development edited by Glyn Davies. Cardiff : University of Wales Press, 1974. 119p. [proceedings of the] conference on & European Finance for Development arranged jointly by the University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology and the Cardiff Junior Chamber of Commerce. ISBN 0-7083-0567-9.

The capital of Wales is a growing financial centre. Achievement, June 1975, p.35.

Building societies and their branches : a regional economic survey by Glyn Davies with Martin J. Davies. London : Franey, 1981. 429p ISBN 0-900382-40-6.

Time for building societies to become banks. The Banker's Magazine, December 1982, vol. 226, no. 1665, p.11-12.

Financial supermarkets versus responsive savings banks. Chartered Building Societies Institute journal, vol. 37, no. 156, May 1983, p. 54-55.

The revolution in monopoly theory, by Glyn Davies and John Davies. Lloyds Bank Review, July 1984, no. 153, p. 38-52. [An article by father and son about the relevance of the theory of contestable markets to financial institutions]..

Societies need wider powers than the green paper offers. The Building Societies's Gazette, vol. 117, no. 1420, April 1985, p. 459-462.

The story of Girobank in Great Britain 1968-1991, in Post giro banking in Europe edited by T.D. Bridge and J.J. Pegg. Tavistock: AQ&DJ Publications, 1993, p. 189-198.

The Rise and Fall of the Coinage Empire: Long-term trends in the economic significance of coins. In: Payments - past, present and future : a collection of essays analysing trends in money transmission London : Association for Payment Clearing Services, 1995, p. 27-45.

Credit: 6,000 Years Old and Still Evolving Vigorously, Business Credit, June 1996, p. 16-19. [An article for the (U.S) National Association of Credit Management's journal.. The article discusses the history of credit, the impact of the invention of coins on the development of credit, the development of printed money and the impact of bank failures].

Monetary Innovation in Historical Perspective: Why Revolution always Boils Down to Evolution [This paper was given as the Keynote Address at the First Consult Hyperion Digital Money Forum 7th-8th October 1997, London, Digital Money: New Era or Business as Usual?]

The single currency in historical perspective. The British Numismatic Journal, vol. 69, 1999, p. 187-195. [The 1999 Howard Linecar Memorial Lecture].

The root of all economics: coinage 640 BC In: James Dyson's history of great inventions edited by Robert Uhlig London : Constable, c2001, p. 26-27.

A history of money : from ancient times to the present day, 3rd ed, foreword by the Right Honourable Viscount Tonypandy. Cardiff : University of Wales Press, 2002. - 720p. ISBN 0-7083-1773-1 (hardback), 0-7083-1717-0 (paperback). [The standard work on the development of money from the dawn of civilization onwards. The first edition was published in 1994.]

Evidence to Official Inquiries

Glyn Davies submitted evidence to various official inquiries included those below.

Committee to Review National Savings, June 1973, (Cmnd 5273). Chairman: Sir Harry Page.

Committee to Review the Functioning of Financial Institutions, June 1980, (Cmnd. 7937). Chairman: Sir Harold Wilson.

House of Commons Committee on Welsh Affairs, Minutes of Evidence, CBI Wales, 25 November 1982. The economic impact of EEC (European Economic Community) membership on business and industry in Wales.

Wartime Experiences in Italy

Up the Apennines: A winter's tale. Army Quarterly & Defence Journal Vol. 128 No. 3. July 1998, p. 329-332. (An article about Busty the pig, who was adopted as a sort of mascot by ‘A’ Squadron, The Royal Dragoons, late in 1943).

Glyn Davies at his desk in Cardiff