Welsh Journals

rily on an attack on 'the rigid and inflexible policy of Socialism'. The Labour candidate in the county was Iwan Morgan, an economist and Cardiff university lecturer with strong Cardiganshire connections.11 Although the absence of a Tory candidate meant that Bowen's election to parliament was nigh on certain, D. O. Evans, in his last public appearance in the county at Llandysul shortly before his death, had warned local Liberals that, 'It would be very unwise to be over-confident. That attitude of mind would only breed complacency.'12 In the event he was probably over-cautious for Bowen defeated Morgan by the wide margin of 8194 votes, by far the highest major- ity of the twelve Liberal MPs returned in 1945, the new MP immediately describing the outcome as 'a victory for personal and political freedom a defeat for bureaucracy and state control'.13 'The young upstart', chosen against the odds only a few weeks earlier and not really widely known in political circles, had, it seemed, already proved his worth.14 At the same time veteran Liberal Sir Rhys Hopkin Morris narrowly captured highly marginal Carmarthenshire, the only Labour loss in the whole of the United Kingdom and an enormous personal triumph. 'He has sincerity, he has eloquence, he has fire', county Liberal sec- retary and local political columnist Miss Lillian Winstanley had written upon Roderic Bowen's selection, 'He has fine achievement and very great prom- ise, and we hope he will have a long and distinguished career.'15 Evan Roderic Bowen had been born at The Elms, Cardigan, on 6 August 1913, the son of Evan Bowen JP, a retired businessman in the town whose family roots were deeply implanted in the agricultural communities of southern Cardiganshire and north Pembroke. Some of his forefathers had been active in local Liberal politics. Educated at Cardigan Council School and Cardigan County School, he had graduated with first class honours in law at both the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth (40 miles from his home), and St John's College, Cambridge. Periods at the Inns of Court and on the conti- nent had led to the call to the bar by the Middle Temple in 1936, bar practice commenced in 1937, Bowen taking chambers at Cardiff and practising on the South Wales circuit. At the outbreak of hostilities, he twice volunteered for military service but was rejected on medical grounds before in 1940, on his third dogged attempt, securing acceptance as a private in which capacity he served for eighteen months. Securing a commission in the autumn of 1941, he served for six months before being appointed chief instructor in adminis- tration of pay duties at a school for officers under Southern Command. Bowen was later seconded to the staff of the Judge-Advocate General to the Forces, and towards the end of the war participated in duties associated with