29 Jones the Peacemonger

Biography J. Graham Jones analyses the life and career of David Davies, the first Baron Davies of Llandinam (1880 – 1944) TheThe PeacemongerPeacemonger ord Davies was one who stood for great ideals, eficiaries of a cash estate exceeding £,,, Lfor which he was ready to spend his health and more than , acres of land, a substantial share- his fortune. He had the imagination of a poet; he saw holding in the Cambrian railways and a controlling great visions. His deep sincerity, his great generosity, interest in the renowned Ocean Coal Company his burning faith made him one of those rare beings and Barry Docks. The young David thus found an who overcome obstacles and change the course of array of industrial responsibilities thrust upon him, history. but he also enjoyed the unwavering support of his Viscount Cecil of Chelwood stepmother who possessed exceptional intelligence and ability. He also shared the energy, enterprise We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, breaths; and determination of his grandfather. In feelings, not in figures on a dial. David Davies was educated at Merchiston Castle, We should count time by heart-throbs. He most a public school in Edinburgh, where rugby football lives was regarded as vital and where he was dubbed Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best. ‘% man’, and at King’s College, Cambridge from Tr ibute of the King Edward VII Welsh to , where he graduated in history. At National Memorial Association Cambridge he was viewed as an avid nonconformist and teetotaller, and was described as ‘an impetuous David Davies, the first Baron Davies of Llandinam, Welshman with a great sense of humour and an in- was born on May at Llwynderw, Llandinam, fectious laugh’. Upon graduation Davies went on Montgomeryshire, the first child (and only son) of big game expeditions to Alaska, Vancouver and Edward Davies who three years earlier had married Washington, and he owned a ranch in Edmonton, his cousin Mary Jones, the daughter of the Revd. Canada from until . During he also Evan Jones of Trewythen. There were also to be two spent a considerable period in Japan, and was one of daughters of the marriage, Gwendoline Elizabeth the few westerners to be a long-term eye-witness of (–) and Margaret Sidney (‘Daisy’) (– the Russo-Japanese conflict. ), who were eventually to become the two fa- Upon his return home to Wales, Davies devoted mous Davies sisters of Gregynog Hall, Newtown. his energies to improving agricultural practices on Edward had been the only son of the first David the Llandinam estate, and became one of the most Davies (–), popularly known as ‘Top Sawyer’, avid of the founders of the Welsh National Agricul- an enormously successful capitalist and philanthro- tural Society. Welsh native breeds of cattle were con- pist who had amassed a huge personal fortune from scientiously nurtured at Llandinam, and Davies is the collieries, railways and docks of south Wales, and himself credited with saving the Welsh pig from ex- who had himself served as the Liberal MP for Cardi- tinction. He also developed a keen interest in fox gan Boroughs from to . ‘Top Sawyer’ had hunting, diligently building up his own pack of fox- been highly regarded as the epitome of all that was hounds, and acquiring, too, his own pack of beagles. best in the Welsh, nonconformist way of life, and was Other pursuits included shooting, rearing pheasants deeply revered in his native Montgomeryshire. Mary and entertaining his wide range of friends and ac- Davies had died in , leaving the three infant quaintances to good sport. In he became chair- children to be brought up by their maternal aunt man of the Ocean Colliery group, one of the largest Elizabeth Jones who four years later married her employers of labour in south Wales, with coal mines brother-in-law, thus becoming the second Mrs centred on the Rhondda and Taff Vale area. Edward Davies. Edward, who had himself suffered In the landslide Liberal victory of the same year from indifferent health for a number of years, died in David Davies began his active political career when , leaving David Davies II, at just eighteen years he succeeded A. C. Humphreys-Owen, Glansevern, of age, and his two younger sisters as the joint ben- as the Liberal MP for his native Montgomeryshire. 16 Journal of Liberal Democrat History 29 Winter 2000–01 In many ways he was a very strange George’s ‘People’s Budget’ of , and keeping Lloyd George informed of the choice. Both his grandfather ‘Top Saw- in he pronounced publicly mood of the rank and file of the Parlia- yer’ and his father Edward had turned against Irish home rule. mentary Liberal Party by keeping his Liberal Unionist back in , and he ear to the ground in the smoking himself conspicuously diverged from rooms and lobbies of the House of the party line on most political issues: The impact of war Commons and the clubs of Westmin- he was flatly opposed to Irish home David Davies’ life, like that of so many ster. At this point the personal rapport rule, he tended to favour tariff reform of his contemporaries, was transformed between the two men was evidently on the lines advocated by Joseph by the outbreak of war in September very close; in November Davies was re- Chamberlain (perhaps endorsing the . He served in the South Wales sponsible for purchasing and furnishing taxation of imported food), he was not Borderers and the Royal Welsh Fusi- a flat in St James’s Court for his ally. He a supporter of church disendowment, liers, and by November he had attained also made persistent overtures concern- and had even come out in opposition the rank of lieutenant-colonel and was ing the purchase of the Westminster Ga- to Lloyd George’s campaign against the channelling his prodigious energies zette ‘in the Government interest’. provisions of Balfour’s Education into the raising of a new battalion – the During these fateful months, too, he Act. He adhered to the party line only th RWF Caernarvon and Anglesey. made soundings of his Liberal parlia- over temperance (he remained a teeto- Although military life was completely mentary colleagues to discover their taller), and he was a fervent Calvinistic new to him, his fertile imagination was feelings towards a possible Lloyd Methodist. Some Montgomeryshire totally captured by the necessity for rig- George premiership, and during the To r ies hoped that he might well be ca- orous military training, and he readily crucial first week of December it was joled into joining their ranks. expended his own personal resources in Davies, together with Dr Christopher Indeed in Davies entered parlia- purchasing field telephones, a supply of Addison and F. G. Kellaway, who was ment unopposed, standing on a highly bicycles and other equipment, while primarily responsible for motivating personal, ambivalent political platform also making available his own hunters support for Lloyd George. When his which combined policies taken from for use as chargers. ally duly became prime minister and both the Liberal and Conservative elec- His own unit, subjected to an formed his renowned ‘Garden Suburb’, tion manifestos, apparently having won uniquely vigorous training in Snow- Davies received his reward, becoming over both local parties. He thus entered donia, reached the western front in De- one of his inner circle of trusted advis- the Commons like some eighteenth- cember , and spent the first five ers and given a special responsibility for century landowner, at once voicing his months in the trenches around Laventie, the drink trade and its possible state heartfelt distaste for the cut-and-thrust Festubert and Givenchy. Davies’ im- purchase. He was also responsible for li- of parliamentary life. Very rarely did he petuosity as a commanding officer soon aison between the War Office and the participate in Commons debates, and he became proverbial, as did his propensity ‘Garden Suburb’, and he visited could never shed a consciousness of feel- for experiments with unconventional Petrograd as a member of Lord Milner’s ing ill at ease when speaking in public. weapons and for schemes to lure the delegation for the only Allied confer- Neither did he feel closely bound by enemy troops out of their trenches. But ence to be convened in Russia. Sensing party ties. Generally he preferred to rely he developed a profound distaste for at first hand the imminent collapse of on the services of the huge personal the squalor and filth of trench warfare the Czarist regime, he hastened to keep staff which he built up, and he was anx- and the massive loss of life which had Lloyd George informed of develop- ious to discourage the formation of a already taken place. While on leave ments in Russia. local party organisation within Mont- from his battalion during January Thereafter, however, the warm rap- gomeryshire. Parliamentary procedure he spoke freely in the House of Com- port between the two men rapidly and niceties repelled him. mons, pleading for changes in recruit- crumbled. Davies’ self-image as a ‘self- Within his constituency, however, ing methods and in the production of appointed candid friend’ soon antago- Davies’ position was totally secure. On munitions. nised both the prime minister and the eve of the First World War the local In June he was suddenly recalled to some of his closest associates. He was Conservative press could write of the England and was appointed parlia- soon reduced to self-parody as ‘a harm- county’s agricultural communities: ‘In mentary private secretary to David less sort of lunatic – always grousing recent years they have given them- Lloyd George on his becoming Sec- and criticising’.

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