Welsh Journals

University College in Swansea. He retired in 1990 and died on 23 February 1995. For most people, such an active ministry, with parochial, diocesan, and provincial commitments, would have been more than enough, but Owain somehow found time to publish many books and articles on the modern religious history of Wales. His two most important books were Isaac Williams and his Circle [1971], a pioneering study of a neglected early Tractarian, with plenty of especial interest to students of Welsh religious history, and Glyn Simon: His Life and Opinions [1981], essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the Church in Wales in the third quarter of the twentieth century. The published version of the latter work was, for financial reasons, a much abbreviated edition of the original typescript, and it was typical of Owain that he shrugged aside the suggestion of many of his friends that he should submit the full work for a DD of the University of Wales. Rowland Williams: Patriot and Critic, was published in 1991, and his last book was an elegant centenary account, St Michael's College, Llandaff, 1892-1992 [1992]. His books represented only a small proportion of his historical output. He contributed articles to Theology, to The Journal of the Historical Society of the Church in Wales, and to Trivium. He was co-editor, with David Walker, of Links with the Past: Swansea and Brecon Historical Essays [1974], to which he contributed useful essays on the training of the Welsh clergy before Lampeter opened its doors and on the Ecclesiologists. His two chapters in The History of the Church in Wales [edited by David Walker, 1976] sparkle with new interpretations of religious life in Wales in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. They remain the best starting point for any students of the subject. He also contributed to The Dictionary of Christian Spirituality and The Dictionary of Welsh National Biography, and just before his death he much enjoyed writing for The New Dictionary of National Biography. What may be his last publication is about to appear in the next volume of The Radnorshire Transactions. Owain also edited volumes XVII to XX of Brycheiniog, the journal of the Brecknock Society, including in volume XX his own indispensable history of the hall and family at Llysdinam and of the parish and church at Newbridge. His wide knowledge of the history of the Venables family earned him a vice- presidency of the Kilvert Society, and his election as a fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 1971 was a fitting tribute to his sound scholarship.