
David Davies (1880-1944) was a Welsh MP and philanthropist whose experiences as a soldier during World War One greatly influenced his lifelong cause of championing peace. Lord David Davies of Llandinam - Wikipedia
Davies was born into a family steeped in philanthropy. His grandfather, also David Davies, was a wealthy industrialist and philanthropist and his sisters Gwendoline and Margaret became leading patrons of the arts in Wales. As WW1 broke out, the Davies sisters played a lead role in organising sanctuary for over 4,000 Belgian refugees fleeing the front.
As a soldier during the Great War - as well as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Prime Minister David Lloyd George - Davies was horrified by the carnage and waste which he witnessed. He believed that war could be avoided, if its causes were properly understood, and upon his return from the continent focused his efforts into championing the cause of peace. He spearheaded the search for stable international order through the League of Nations and the League of Nations Union, and wanted to see the establishment of a strong International Police force so that international agreement and peace could be maintained.
Dept of International Politics, Aberystwyth University
In 1918, Davies established a new academic discipline, creating the world’s first department of International Politics at Aberystwyth University. The first Chair in the discipline was endowed by Davies in honour of the American president Woodrow Wilson, the man who pioneered the concept of the League of Nations, of which Davies was amongst its chief advocates. Davies was one of the founders of the League of Nations Union and the foremost proponent of the creation of an international police force to help regulate world order. He later founded the New Commonwealth Society in order to advance his vision of international law and order. The spirit of the Society is still very much alive in the form of the David Davies Memorial Institute, which through leading academic scholarship continues to honour the legacy of its founder.
Davies Papers - National Library of Wales 2017: unpublished biography by Tennyson, 1953 (digitised 2017); Lord Davies of Llandinam archive collection (catalogued 2017).