was joint-editor of the short-lived periodical Cymru Fydd (1890), but resigned when it became too political in character. In August 1891 he launched his own monthly Cymru, and in 1892 Cymru’r Plant, a monthly magazine for children, both of which he continued to edit to the day of his death. In 1895 he founded Y Llenor, a quarterly, and he also edited Wales, a magazine in English. In 1889 there appeared O’r Bala i Geneva, a book of travel, so written as to strike an entirely new note in Welsh prose; it was followed in rapid succession by others full of that charm of style which captured the imagination of Welsh readers. The principal work that he published in English was Wales (1901) in the ‘Story of the Nations’ series. Besides his own personal contribution to Welsh literature, Edwards published cheap reprints of the Welsh classics (Cyfres y Fil, and others), ranging from Dafydd ap Gwilym to Ceiriog. He did more than any other man to revive Welsh as a literary language. He was knighted in 1916 ‘for his services to Welsh literature’.
Edwards’s two main interests in life were education and Welsh culture. He reported on ‘the state of education in Wales’ to the committee of the Privy Council on education, before the first charter of the university of Wales was granted in 1893. He was a member of the royal commission which reported in 1918 before the granting of the second charter. In 1907 he became chief inspector of education for Wales under the Board of Education. As chief inspector he was an untiring administrator; but he was also the prophet of a new ideal of education. His conception of Welsh nationalism as based on culture and entirely exempt from political and sectarian partisanship, was peculiarly his own, and he made it effective.
In 1891 Edwards married Ellen, daughter of Evan Davies, of Prys Mawr, Llanuwehllyn. They had two sons and one daughter. His wife died in April 1919. That blow, together with the heavy burden of his work, hastened his death, which took place at Llanuwchllyn on 15 May 1920.
[The Times, 18 May 1920; Oxford Magazine, 11 June 1920; personal knowledge]
EGERTON, Sir CHARLES COMYN (1848-1921), field-marshal, the third son of Major-General Caledon Richard Egerton, by his wife, Margaret, third daughter of Alexander Cumming, of the island of St. Vincent, was born 10 November 1848. Educated at Rossall School, he proceeded thence to Sandhurst, entering the army in 1867. His first commission was to the 31st Foot and was dated 9 June of that year; but a few days later he was transferred to the 76th Foot, now the 2nd battalion of the Duke of Wellington’s regiment. After four years in the British service Egerton decided to adopt the Indian army as a career, and was accordingly posted to what was then known as the Staff Corps, i.e. the general list of British officers selected from applicants from the British forces for service with the Indian army. This was in 1871, and the army to which Egerton was posted was that of Bengal. In June 1879 he was promoted to the rank of captain.
The Afghan War of 1879-1880 gave Egerton his first chance of active service. He took part in the famous march from Kabul to Kandahar, being mentioned in dispatches for his services during the campaign. Then followed a long period of hard and incessant work in frontier operations, which brought him to the front. He served as assistant adjutant-general during the Hazara expedition of 1888, and three years later, for further service in the same country, was awarded the D.S.O. and received very high praise from Sir William S. A. Lockhart. Staff duty with Miranzai expeditions (1891) followed, in which Egerton was severely wounded; he received a brevet lieutenant-colonelcy for his brilliant work. In 1894-1895 he was himself in command of the Bannu column in the Waziristan campaign, receiving the C.B. on the conclusion of hostilities. Egerton’s work as a military administrator and a fighter had now been fully proved, and it was no surprise when he was appointed to command the Indian contingent which took part in the expedition to Dongola in 1896, for his services in which he was appointed aide-de-camp to Queen Victoria.
After his return to India Egerton was employed on the staff in the punitive expedition of 1897-1898 into the Tochi Valley, and in 1901-1902 commanded another expedition into Waziristan, for which he received the thanks of the government of India. There was another little war against Waziri tribesmen which he also directed, and he then took over command of the Punjab frontier force, a post which he held for four years. An important campaign was now entrusted to him. In Somaliland the mullah, Mohammed bin Abdullah, known as the ‘Mad Mullah’, was still a menace. Eger-
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