{{Short description|Welsh historian}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2021}} {{infobox academic |honorific_prefix = [[Sir]] |honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|FBA|FRHistS}} |birth_name = John Goronwy Edwards |birth_date = 14 May 1891 |death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|1976|6|20|1891|5|14}} |occupation = Historian and academic |education = Holywell Grammar School |alma_mater = [[Jesus College, Oxford]] |workplaces = [[Victoria University of Manchester]]<br>[[Jesus College, Oxford]]<br>[[Institute of Historical Research]] }} '''Sir John Goronwy Edwards''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|FBA|FRHistS}} (14 May 1891<ref>''[[1939 England and Wales Register]]''</ref><ref>''England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007''</ref> &ndash; 20 June 1976) was a [[Wales|Welsh]] historian.

==Early life== Edwards, who was proficient in [[Welsh language|Welsh]] before he could read English, was educated at [[Holywell, Flintshire|Holywell]] Grammar School before [[matriculation|matriculating]] at [[Jesus College, Oxford]], in 1909. His 1913 essay on [[Thomas Osborne, 1st Duke of Leeds|Danby]] gained him [[proxime accessit]] in the [[Stanhope prize competition]].<ref>J. F. A. Mason, 'Edwards, Sir (John) Goronwy (1891–1976)’, rev. ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004</ref>

==Career== After obtaining his degree in 1913, he worked for a time at [[Victoria University of Manchester|Manchester University]] under [[T. F. Tout]].

During the [[First World War]] he served with the [[Royal Welch Fusiliers]] in France and obtained the rank of captain.

In 1919, he returned to Jesus College as [[Oxbridge Fellow|Fellow]] and Tutor in History, where he specialised in medieval English and Welsh history, serving also as Senior Tutor for 13 years. He was highly regarded as a lecturer, tutor and supervisor of research students. He was joint editor of the ''[[English Historical Review]]'' from 1938 and was appointed a [[Fellow of the British Academy]] in 1943.

He had hoped to be appointed Principal of the college when it fell vacant on the death of [[Alfred Hazel]] in 1944. Instead, the decision was taken to appoint [[Frederick Ogilvie]] as principal, with Edwards becoming vice-principal.<ref name=Times>{{cite news|title=Sir Goronwy Edwards &ndash; A loyal and learned Welshman|date=21 June 1976|work=[[The Times]]|page=16}}</ref>

In 1948 after 29 years as a [[Oxbridge Fellow|Fellow]] of [[Jesus College, Oxford]], Edwards accepted the invitation to become Director of the [[Institute of Historical Research]] and Professor of History at the [[University of London]]. In addition to his continuing scholarship, he also presided over many committees with, it was said, "exemplary patience".<ref name=Times/>

Outside his university Edwards served on the [[Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales]] and the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts.

He was [[Knight Bachelor|knighted]] in July 1960 shortly before his retirement. In retirement he served as president of the [[Royal Historical Society]] from 1961 to 1965<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.royalhistoricalsociety.org/rhspresidents.doc |title=List of Presidents |publisher=Royal Historical Society |accessdate=20 December 2010 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716111002/http://www.royalhistoricalsociety.org/rhspresidents.doc |archivedate=16 July 2011 }}</ref> and was awarded the [[Cymmrodorion]] medal on his eightieth birthday in 1971 to mark his service to Wales.

==Death== He died on 20 June 1976 at the age of 85.

==References== {{Reflist}} * A long series of letters from him to TF Tout, his former Manchester tutor, including many from the front line in World War I is in the T.F. Tout Collection, John Rylands Library, University of Manchester.

==External links== * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Goronwy Edwards |sopt=t}}

{{s-start}} {{s-aca}} {{succession box | before=[[David Knowles (scholar)|David Knowles]]| title=[[Royal Historical Society|President of the Royal Historical Society]] | years=1961&ndash;1965| after=[[Robert Arthur Humphreys]] }} {{end}}

{{Presidents of the Royal Historical Society}} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Edwards, Goronwy}} [[Category:1891 births]] [[Category:1976 deaths]] [[Category:20th-century Welsh historians]] [[Category:Fellows of the British Academy]] [[Category:Fellows of the Royal Historical Society]] [[Category:Knights Bachelor]] [[Category:Alumni of Jesus College, Oxford]] [[Category:Fellows of Jesus College, Oxford]] [[Category:Presidents of the Royal Historical Society]] [[Category:Academics of the School of Advanced Study]] [[Category:Academics of the Victoria University of Manchester]] [[Category:Royal Welch Fusiliers officers]] [[Category:British Army personnel of World War I]] [[Category:Historians of the University of Oxford]] [[Category:History journal editors]] [[Category:British academic journal editors]]