REES, CALEB (1883 - 1970), inspector of schools and author

Born in 1883 the son of Jacob and Mary Rees, Esgair-ordd, Whitchurch, Pembrokeshire. From the village school he went to Port Talbot Intermediate School where he gained a scholarship to Cardiff University College in 1899. There he won the Gladstone Memorial Prize, and graduated with first-class hons. in English in 1902. He continued his education at Manchester University where he won the Withers Prize before returning to Cardiff as a lecturer in the education department in 1908, gaining an M.A. degree the following year. In 1912 he was appointed inspector of schools for the counties of Brecon and Monmouth and the borough of Newport, later becoming deputy chief inspector for Wales. At the beginning of World War II he was seconded to the Ministry of information in Cardiff but his health failed and after recuperating he returned to his work as inspector of training colleges and university training departments. He married in City Road chapel (Welsh Meth.), London, 28 August 1922, Laura Gertrude Powell, medical officer of the Board of Health at Cardiff, and they made their home in 28 Clytha Park Road, Newport, Monmouth. Although he retired in 1943 to Island House, Laugharne, he was given the task three years later of interviewing young men, many ex-service men among them, for the teaching profession. He and his wife became members of his old church in Pen-y-groes, where he was elected a deacon. His wife died 1 January and he died on 9 January 1970.

He and his brother Stephen Morris Rees were co- authors of a history of Pen-y-groes Congregational Church (1959). He also wrote a series of articles on education which appeared in the Traethodydd 1907-08; an article on teaching Welsh in schools in Beirniad, 1; the story of his great-uncle who emigrated to America in Llenor, 1933; as well as pamphlets on education.

Author

• Dr Mary Auronwy James

Sources

• Who's who in Wales, (1937)
• University of Wales Calendar, 1900-13
• Cardigan and Tivyside Advertiser, 16 and 23 January 1970
• The Biographical Index of W. W. Price, Aberdâr
• Office of Population and Census Studies Indexes, birth registered July - September 1883

Additional Links

• Wikidata: Q20732686

Published date: 2001

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