MYRDDIN-EVANS, Sir GUILDHAUME (1894 - 1964), civil servant

Born 17 December 1894, the second son of Rev. Thomas Towy Evans, minister (B.) at Blaenau Gwent, Abertillery, Monmouthshire, and Mary (née James) his wife. He was educated at Cwmtillery elementary school, Abertillery county school, Llandovery College and Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated with first class honours in mathematics. He served as a lieutenant with the South Wales Borderers in France and Flanders during World War I and was seriously wounded. He was a member of Lloyd George's personal secretariat at 10 Downing Street in 1917, and assistant secretary to the War Cabinet in 1919. He held a number of key positions within the Treasury from 1920 until 1929 when he was appointed to the Ministry of Labour. Myrddin-Evans served as the Head of the Production Executive Secretariat at the War Cabinet Offices in 1941, and as adviser to the War Manpower Commission of the government of the U.S.A. in 1942. He also acted as adviser to the Canadian government. He returned to the Ministry of Labour and National Service as under-secretary in 1942 and deputy secretary in 1945. Between 1945 and 1959 he was the representative of the British government on the governing body of the International Labour Office which he chaired on three occasions. From 1955 until 1959 (when he retired) he was the Chief International Labour Adviser to H.M. Government. He was the chairman of the Local Government Commission for Wales in 1959 when he proved himself a popular and amiable but efficient colleague. The report of the Commission appeared in 1963. From 1943 Myrddin-Evans was a member of the Council of the Baptist Union of Great Britain and Ireland, and he served, too, as the secretary of the Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church in London. He was joint-author of the volume The employment exchange of Great Britain (1934). He received the C.B. in 1945 and the K.C.M.G. in 1947.

He married in 1919 Elizabeth (who died in 1981), the daughter of Owen Watkins of Sarn, Caernarfonshire (Watkins, too, was a member of Lloyd George's personal secretariat during World War I). They had two sons. He died 15 February 1964 at his home 6 Chester Place, Regent's Park, London.

Author

• Dr John Graham Jones

Sources

• Who was who?
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
• The Times, 17 and 24 February 1964
• Western Mail, 17 February 1964
• The Biographical Index of W. W. Price, Aberdâr

Additional Links

• NLW Archives: Sir Guildhaume Myrddin-Evans Papers
• Wikidata: Q18819465

Published date: 2001

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