Welsh Journals

OBITUARY WILLIAM OGWEN WILLIAMS (1924-1969) The sudden and tragic death of Professor Ogwen Williams on 3 May 1969, at the early age of 44, shocked and saddened all who knew him. He was the third Professor of Welsh History to have died within a period of less than seven years. Ogwen Williams was born on 12 December 1924, at Llanfairfechan, Caernarvonshire, where he was nurtured and which was his home for the greater part of his life. He was educated at Friars School, Bangor, and at the University College of North Wales, which he entered in 1942. Mature beyond his years, he soon showed signs of high academic promise and graduated with first class honours in History in 1945. After taking the Diploma in Education he embarked upon a study of the Anglesey gentry during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, which gave him a taste for original records. When the Caernarvonshire County Council determined to establish a Record Office at Caernarvon, it wisely appointed him as archivist and made provision for him to read for the Diploma in Palaeography and Archives Administration at the University of London in 1947-48. For ten years he was a full-time archivist at Caernarvon and in 1958 he became lecturer in History through the medium of Welsh at Bangor. Here he remained until 1963, when he moved to Aberystwyth, initially as lecturer in Welsh History. Two years later, he was promoted senior lecturer and in 1967 was appointed the Sir John Williams Professor of Welsh History in succession to Professor David Williams. He was a member of the Court of the National Library of Wales, of the Ancient Monuments Board for Wales, of the History and Law Committee of the Board of Celtic Studies, and of the Court of the University of Wales. For eleven years he was sole editor of the Transactions of the Anglesey Antiquarian Society and Field Club. Since nearly half of his professional life was spent at the Caernarvon- shire Record Office, the first Record Office to be established in north Wales, it is appropriate to begin with his career as archivist. The county of Caernarvon could not have been more fortunate in its first archivist. He himself gratefully acknowledged the help and encouragement given to him in organizing the new office by the late Gwilym T. Jones, clerk to the county council, and subsequently by Eryl Owen-Jones and by his old friend, Emyr Gwynne Jones, but the main responsibility, of course, fell upon him. His lot was not always an easy one. He was from the outset concerned to show that the office at Caernarvon had a valuable part to play in the life of the community. In addition to the routine business of arranging and cataloguing documents and of acquiring new collections, where his tact and quiet perseverance were invaluable, he