John Cledwyn Davies

John Cledwyn Davies (1869-31 December 1952) [http://www.leighrayment.com/commons/Dcommons1.htm ] was a Welsh Liberal politician, educationist and lawyer.

Education

Davies was educated at Llanrwst Grammar School, University College, Bangor and London University where he gained his MA degree [Schoolmasters Yearbook and Directory, 1903] .

Career

Davies was called to the Bar at the Middle Temple but spent much of his career in education as a teacher and administrator. His most senior positions were as Headmaster of Holywell Secondary School, Flintshire and then as Director of Education for the county of Denbighshire. He was a Member of Court of the University of Wales as well as being a Member of the University Council and of its Finance Committee. He was a member of the Welsh Joint Education Committee and a member of a number of governing bodies of various schools in Wales [Who was Who, OUP 2007] .

Politics

Davies was for a time a member of Denbighshire County Council and its Education Committee. He also served as a Justice of the Peace. He emerged more publicly into the political light at the 1922 general election against the background of the continuing split in the Liberal Party between the followers of David Lloyd George and H H Asquith. Davies was adopted as National Liberal (i.e. Lloyd George) candidate for the constituency of Denbigh. He stood down temporarily from his post as Director of Education to be able to stand for Parliament and was opposed in the election by Llewellyn G Williams standing for the Asquithian Liberals and a Conservative the Honourable Mrs Broderick [The Times, 11.11.22] . The 1922 election was bad for Liberals of both persuasions but particularly bad for the former Coalition or National Liberals. According to one historian, only in its stronghold of rural north Wales was Coalition Liberalism able to survive unaided against Conservative and Labour attacks [Chris Cook, "A Short History of the Liberal Party, 1900-1992"; MacMillan, 1993 p 88] . Davies’ experience in the election and his brief stay in the House of Commons was clearly uncongenial to him as he decided not to put himself before the electorate again at the 1923 general election which was won for the then reunited Liberal Party by the former Asquithian Ellis William Davies.

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