Background
He was born to a hill farming family in Llanaelhaearn, in the administrative county of Caernarvonshire (now Gwynedd), in the Llŷn Peninsula of north Wales.
administrator founder lecturer barrister
He was born to a hill farming family in Llanaelhaearn, in the administrative county of Caernarvonshire (now Gwynedd), in the Llŷn Peninsula of north Wales.
Peterhouse; Aberystwyth University. University of Wales.
The family were Welsh-speaking and deeply religious. He learnt English only after he started school. In World War I he joined the Royal Welch Fusiliers as an officer in 1915 and did service on the Western Front.
He was invalided out in 1919.
He then attended Peterhouse, Cambridge, of which he became an honorary fellow in 1956, and passed the law tripos first class in 1920. After Peterhouse he was a lecturer in law at Aberystwyth.
He became a barrister in 1922 at Inner Temple, a bencher in 1952, and took silk in 1955. In 1924 he became lecturer in law at the London School of Economics and Political Science and from 1928 reader.
In 1930 he became professor of English law, succeeding Edward Jenks.
When he retired in 1959. it was the leading department in the country. In 1947, he created the University of London"s Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, an international centre of legal research, and was director from 1947 to 1959. At the University of London, he held many important offices including the vice-chancellorship (1945-1948) and chairmanship of the court (1962-1970).
He developed the university"s social and athletic facilities rather than at the college level
From 1955 to 1964 he was president of the University of Aberystwith.