David James Davies

Who was David James Davies?

Dr. D.J. Davies, was a Welsh economist, industrialist, prize winning essayist, author, political activist, pilot, and an internationalist. Davies was a world traveller before returning home to Wales.

Initially a founding member of the Welsh Labour Party in the Ammanford district, in 1925 he left Labour becoming a founding member of Plaid Cymru, the nationalist party of Wales.

According to historian Professor John Davies, it was D.J. Davies' ideas which were more influential in shaping long-term Plaid Cymru ideology following the Second World War, and Davies was as "equally [a] significant figure" as Saunders Lewis in Welsh nationalism history, but it was Lewis' "brilliance and charismatic appeal" which was firmly associated with Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru of the 1930s.