Welsh Journals

'MANUSCRIPTS ARE THE SPICE OF LIFE': DR THOMAS RICHARDS AND THE REAL NATIONAL LIBRARY OF WALES AT BANGOR GERAINT H. JENKINS In the summer of 1926 the year of the General Strike the 48- year-old son of a poor Cardiganshire cottager was appointed librarian of the University College of North Wales, Bangor. No interviews were conducted the sage advice of Professor John Edward Lloyd was reckoned to be more than sufficient and the new librarian had no formal qualifications for the post. Had formal interviews been conducted, it is certain that the successful applicant, as befitted a devout Welsh Particular Baptist, would have worn a dark suit, a hard white collar, a waistcoat with a gold watch on a chain, and gold-rimmed spectacles, and that he would have puffed away contentedly on his pipe before his interrogators. This was Dr Thomas Richards, a Cardiganshire man who was a legend in his own time and who deserves to be remembered by the august members of the Aberystwyth Bibliographical Group.1 'There was only one Doc Tom' ('Nid oedd ond un "Doc Tom"') said R. T. Jenkins,2 and his appointment by Bangor, though totally unexpected, proved to be an inspired choice, for this gangling, witty, highly intimidating librarian would bestride the College library like a colossus for the next twenty years and transform its role and status.3 The new librarian was offered a salary of £ 400 per annum, together with a further £ 150 for some part-time teaching in modern Welsh history.4 To Richards, the post was the fulfilment of a dream which dated back to the days when he was a rather eccentric, though popular, undergraduate at Bangor between 1899 and 1903, during which time Professor John Alfred Green had described him as 'that loquacious fellow from somewhere in South Wales'.5 Richards did not mind being dubbed 'loquacious',