Alwyn D. Rees

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Alwyn David Rees (27 March 1911 – 6 December 1974) was a Welsh geographer, social anthropologist and

Llanfihangel yng Ngwynfa.[2] From 1966 until his death he edited the Welsh magazine Barn
.

Early life

Alwyn D. Rees was born in Llanarel, Coalbrook,

University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, gaining a first-class degree in geography and anthropology in 1933. In 1934 he gained a diploma in education and a teachers' certificate. Granted a Sir John Williams studentship to study Welsh literature, he gained an MA in 1937 with research on pagan survivals in early Celtic Christianity.[1]

Life in a Welsh Countryside and community studies

From 1936 to 1946 Rees worked for the College's extramural department as a tutor in Montgomeryshire.[1] In 1938 the College's Principal, Ifor Evans, suggested to Rees that he carry out a study of a rural Welsh-speaking community.[3] Others encouraging Rees in the project included Daryll Forde, Professor E. G. Bowen and Professor H. J. Fleure.[4]

The motives are not entirely clear, but one suspects that an attempt was being made to record the dying Welsh culture before it succumbed to encroaching English influences. The original intention was to do a series of such studies of selected communities in various parts of Wales, but, as in Ireland, war intervened and the project was only continued some years later.[3]

Rees conducted fieldwork in

Emrys Bowen appointed Rees to the department of geography and anthropology.[5] Rees's own study of Llanfihangel yng Ngwynfa was published in 1950 as Life in a Welsh Countryside.[6] One anthropological emphasis was on the joking relations between the young men's group and the rest of the community, which Rees argued served to reinforce community norms.[7] Rees and Bowen encouraged a series of studies of Welsh rural communities at the university. From 1954 to 1960 they worked to co-edit Welsh Rural Communities, a published collection of community studies.[1] Rees's student Bill Williams published The Sociology of an English Village: Gosforth in 1964.[8]

Later activities

From 1949 to 1958 Rees edited the journal of the Guild of Graduates of the University of Wales, Yr Einion/The Welsh Anvil.[9]

Celtic Heritage (1961), written with his brother Brinley, tried to place Celtic heritage in a wider Indo-European framework, presenting parallels between Irish mythology and Indian literature.[10]

Rees became a

Welsh nationalist in the late 1950s. He defended the federal structure of the University of Wales in 1960, successfully resisting the break-up of the university. In February 1966 Rees became editor of the Welsh-language literary magazine Barn, using his editorship to articulate the Welsh nationalist cause.[1] He was a keen supporter of the Welsh Language Association
campaigns.

Rees continued to wield influence on University committees. From 1968 to 1971 he was Warden of the college's Guild of Graduates.[11] In summer 1973, he warned the University Council that he intended to bring in a minority report against University expansionism.[12]

Unwell since 1973, Rees died of a heart attack on 6 December 1974.[1]

Reputation

The

hall of residence.[14]

Works

  • Affeilion. 1943.
  • Life in a Welsh countryside, a social study of Llanfihangel yng Ngwynfa. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1950.
  • (ed. with Elwyn Davies) Welsh rural communities. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1960.
  • (with Brinley Rees) Celtic heritage: ancient tradition in Ireland and Wales. London: Thames & Hudson, 1961.
  • The magistrate's dilemma vis-à-vis the Welsh language offender. Llandybie: C. Davies, 1968.
  • Ym Marn Alwyn D. Rees [In the opinion of Alwyn D. Rees], ed. Bobi Jones. Abertawe: Christopher Davies, 1976.

References

  1. ^
    doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/75837. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  2. ISBN 9780708323106
    .
  3. ^ a b c Bell, Colin; Newby, Howard (1971). "The European Studies". Community Studies: An Introduction to the Sociology of the Local Community. Routledge.
  4. S2CID 149586465
    .
  5. ^ Carter, Harold. "BOWEN, EMRYS GEORGE (1900-1983), geographer". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales.
  6. ISBN 9781137512536
    .
  7. ISBN 9781136539978
    .
  8. ^ Williams, W. M. [William Morgan] (1964). The Sociology of an English Village: Gosforth. International Library of Society. Routledge & Paul.
  9. ISBN 9780708326152
    .
  10. ISBN 9781443808767
    .
  11. ^ Morgan, Prys (1997). The University of Wales, 1939-1993. p. 128.
  12. ^ Morgan, Prys (1997). The University of Wales, 1939-1993. p. 135.
  13. ISBN 9781349178254
    .
  14. ^ "Pantycelyn Lecture: 'A necessary person, Alwyn D. Rees (1911-1974): Battles long ago for Language and University". Aberystwyth University. 31 October 2019.
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