Welsh Journals

T.P.' AN APPRECIATION The Editor has invited me to contribute an appreciation of T.P. and it is a great privilege to comply with his request. As one of the Foundation Members of the Radnorshire Society, and one who served with him as Joint Secretary for many years after the lamented death of the Reverend Stedman Davies, I am well able to assess the incalculable debt owed by the Society to T.P. Like myself, T.P. was not a native of Radnorshire, but again, like myself, he adopted the county and was adopted by it. I remember being introduced to T.P. in December 1926 (four years before the foundation of the Society) by Mr. David Jones, the then Headmaster of Llandrindod Wells Council School (now the County Primary School). At the time I little thought that I was destined to have a very close and intimate connection with him personally and on many Town and County Committees. Subsequently I had to consult him on many occasions and I found that at least twice a day I could be certain to find him, either in the early morning when he regularly went down to the Rock Park to take the waters' and I used to meet him coming back deeply engrossed in read- ing his daily newspaper, or in the evenings in the back-room of his chemist's shop! What a lot of official and unofficial business was transacted in that tiny back-room I remember my first amazement at the way in which T.P. would prepare prescriptions, take telephone messages, and serve customers while, at the same time, he would take a dominant part in all the business under discussion. T.P. was the complete extrovert ready with an opinion, quick to make decisions, and not easily diverted once he had made up his mind on any point. He was also as quick and ready to implement any decision arrived at. At Committees it was the natural thing to appoint him Chairman he was business-like and could get through the agenda, sometimes in record time. Some would say he was inclined to be peremptory, or even dictatorial at times, but he could never suffer fools gladly.' He would invariably get to the heart of the matter under discussion and his sense of fair-play and geniaiity always won the respect and admiration of everyone even those who disagreed with him sometimes. He had a great capacity for friendship and he was always loyal to his friends.