Dai Morgan Evans was General Secretary of the Society of Antiquaries from 1992 until his retirement in 2004. This selection of fourteen previously published papers from his scholarly output is prefaced by an introduction and reminiscences, in prose and verse, from colleagues and family. There is also an appendix listing the author’s principal published works. The diverse subjects in this selection are strongly informed by personal commitment and the approach to life I recall from my time as a friend and colleague of the author. The topics and analyses range across archaeology, historical research, linguistic and literary insights and consideration of approaches to the preservation of monuments and their landscapes. They also reflect the varied enthusiasms that Dai pursued through his life, including his desire to promote the Society of Antiquaries and his abiding passion for things Welsh.
The papers on the early history of the Society (‘The Society of Antiquaries, 1707–18: Meeting Places and Origin Stories’; ‘“Banks is the Villain!” Sir Joseph Banks and the governance of the Society of Antiquaries’) demonstrate his interest in the fine detail of that origin story and in the antiquity, continuity and standing of the organisation as the basis for arguments in support of its modern status and rights. This understanding of the long history of the Society underpinned what he saw as due recognition of that legacy (pp 12–15). He cannot resist the opportunity to show his indignation at the 2006 withdrawal of crown (government) support (‘arbitrarily removed’) for the accommodation of the Society that he documented as existing from 1770.
Dai’s Welsh identity and continuing interests were always important (I remember being very confused when a caller to the office asked to speak to David), as shown here by his investigation of the Welsh material within the Antiquaries’ archives and the series of papers on the early archaeology and history of post-Roman Welsh kingdoms (‘Octavius Morgan, journal of a tour through North Wales in 1821’; ‘The origins of Powys – Christian, heretic or pagan?’; ‘An early Christian monument from Llanwyddelan, Montgomeryshire’; ‘Legacy hunting and Welsh identities’). The series on the church at Llangar reveals his deep personal connection as well as his academic interests.
The challenges posed by conservation of standing monuments feature in several of these papers and would have been personally familiar in the form of the city walls of Chester. The personal preferences of the author show what was perhaps a wider disenchantment with the conservation-led (ie interventionist) approach to management of ancient monuments and buildings that had dominated his professional career experiences. His preference for a more sympathetic and landscape-based approach is shown in his positive assessment of English Heritage (EH) management of Wigmore Castle and his emotional connection to the past, as referenced by his affection for the site at Llangar (pp 131–2, 213, 235).
One aspect of Dai’s intellectual approach that emerges from these papers is his love of argument, often playing an iconoclastic role and challenging orthodox or perceived truths (including the validity of his own Society’s tercentenary date!). He was happy to unpick accepted views, even in the absence of a replacement theory of his own. His review of the ‘Arthurian’ context of South Cadbury, and the challenge to widely accepted Roman to Welsh continuity, highlight this deconstructionist trend. No doubt the opportunity to propose ‘a new beginning for “Wales” and the British kingdoms…’ (p 77) was also welcome.
His success, as a player and as an instructor, in the theatre of public inquiries owed much to this disputatious strand of his character. Despite his Inquiry successes, Dai always managed to remain on friendly terms with the opposition, acknowledging the need for some form of accommodation if conservation objectives were to be met. Dai shared these skills, providing training for colleagues in dealing with public inquiries, including securing a QC to cross-examine us to our severe (but very worthwhile) discomfort. A favourite trick was to provide water jug, glass and all other requirements – all on a desk that was just too small to hold everything as we scrambled for our notes – and see how we would handle the inevitable chaos (p 10).
These duties highlighted his success as a communicator, also ably demonstrated in his work on the two Roman building reconstruction projects at Butser and Wroxeter, and the work on the Pillar of Eliseg project as well as his teaching commitments at Chester.
I was also personally grateful for his challenge and generosity when I joined English Heritage (as it was then) in 1987. Dai was my appointed mentor and introduced me to the ways of the Inspectorate, and of the office – the formal duties of the former and the coffee-buying rota and other key issues for the latter. He introduced me to my in-tray, stacked high with files thoughtfully ordered in from registry as suitable for my early learning; after a couple of days he relented and explained that I did not need to read each file from cover to cover. I then spent the next 30 years, as pupil, colleague and friend, continuing to learn from Dai and enjoying almost every moment.
Although I was very fortunate to have Dai as a mentor and colleague, he also became a very good friend and was always excellent company in EH days, a welcoming host at Burlington House and a fine companion over many lunches and dinners over the following years. Unfortunately, we never got around to writing the books that we spent some long evenings planning together over dinner (and perhaps too much wine to clearly remember the plans the next day), but the best parts were the conversations and the good company itself rather than anything else.
