William Thomas Pennar Davies (12 November 1911 – 29 December 1996) was a Welsh clergyman and author.[1]
Born William Thomas Davies, in Mountain Ash, the son of a miner, he took the name "Pennar" (a stream in Mountain Ash and the root of its Welsh name Aberpennar) "as a sign of his identification with the native culture of Wales".[2] Pennar Davies studied at University of Wales, Cardiff, at Balliol and Mansfield College, Oxford, and at Yale University. In 1943 he became a Congregational minister in Cardiff. He was subsequently professor of Church History at Bala-Bangor Theological College and Brecon Congregational Memorial College, was Principal of Brecon Congregational Memorial College from 1950 and Principal of Swansea Memorial College from 1959 until his retirement in 1979.[3]
Davies wrote poetry under the pseudonym Davies Aberpennar. Until about 1948 he wrote in both Welsh and English, and after this almost exclusively in Welsh, which he had learnt as a young man.[2]
A member of Plaid Cymru, he was co-opted onto its National Executive Committee (Welsh: Pwyllgor Gwaith Cenedlaethol) at Easter 1947,[4] Literary Editor of the party's monthly newspaper, The Welsh Nationalist from March 1947[5] and its Editor from April 1949.[6] During this period, the newspaper published new poetry by Idris Davies and R. S. Thomas[7] Davies stood as a Parliamentary candidate at Llanelli in the UK general elections of 1964 and the 1966. He was a leading campaigner for Welsh language broadcasting.
Pennar Davies and his wife Rosemarie had five children. His eldest son Dr Meirion Pennar, became a leading Welsh language academic, poet and translator.[8]