Ellis Evans

Who is Ellis Evans?

David Ellis Evans FBA was a Welsh scholar and academic. He was born in the Towy Valley in Carmarthenshire and went to Llandeilo Grammar School.

After studying at Jesus College, Oxford and receiving a doctorate from the University of Oxford, he lectured at the University of Wales, Swansea from 1957 to 1978, rising to become Professor. In 1978, he returned to Oxford University as Jesus Professor of Celtic and also became a Professorial Fellow of Jesus College. He was appointed as a Fellow of the British Academy in 1983, having delivered the Academy's Sir John Rhys Memorial Lecture in 1977, named in honour of the first Oxford Celtic Professor. He retired in 1996.

His particular research interest was early Celtic culture throughout Europe, dealing with its relationship with that of the classical world, and in the history of the Celtic languages and the early literatures of Wales and Ireland. A volume of essays on these topics by fellow Celticists was published in honour of his 65th birthday in 1995.