View source for Clement Davies

{{Short description|British Liberal politician (1884–1962)}}
{{for|the Canadian minister|Clem Davies (minister)}}

{{EngvarB|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix    = [[The Right Honourable]]
| name                = Clement Davies
| image               = Clement Davies.jpg
| caption             = Davies in 1936
| honorific-suffix    = {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|QC}}
| birth_date          = 19 February 1884
| birth_place         = [[Llanfyllin]], Wales
| death_date          = {{death date and age|1962|3|23|1884|2|19|df=y}}
| death_place         = [[Montgomery, Wales|Montgomery]], Wales
| office3             = [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]]<br>for [[Montgomeryshire (UK Parliament constituency)|Montgomeryshire]]
| parliament3         =
| majority3           = 
| predecessor3        = [[David Davies, 1st Baron Davies|David Davies]]
| successor3          = [[Emlyn Hooson]]
| term_start3         = 30 May 1929
| term_end3           = 23 March 1962
| office              = [[Leader of the Liberal Party (UK)|Leader of the Liberal Party]]
| term_start          = 2 August 1945
| term_end            = 5 November 1956
| deputy              = [[Megan Lloyd George]] {{small|(1949–1951)}}
| predecessor2        = [[Archibald Sinclair]]
| successor2          = [[Jo Grimond]]
| alma_mater          = [[Trinity Hall, Cambridge]]
}}
'''Edward Clement Davies''' {{postnominals|country=GBR|QC}} (19 February 1884 – 23 March 1962) was a [[Welsh people|Welsh]] politician and leader of the [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal Party]] from 1945 to 1956.

==Early life and education==
Edward Clement Davies was born on 19 February 1884 in [[Llanfyllin]], [[Montgomeryshire]], [[Wales]].<ref>{{cite DWB|id=s2-DAVI-EDW-1884|title=Davies, Clement Edward (1884-1962), politician|author=Evan David Jones|year=2001|access-date=10 December 2024}}</ref> He was educated at the local primary school and at Llanfyllin County School, to which he won a scholarship in 1897. He read law at [[Trinity Hall, Cambridge]], where he graduated with first-class honours.<ref name="Jones">{{cite web |last1=Jones |first1=J. Graham |title=Clement Davies, 1884-1962 |url=https://liberalhistory.org.uk/history/clement-davies-edward/ |website=Liberal History |access-date=15 October 2021}}</ref>

==Legal practice==
Davies lectured in law at the [[University College of Wales, Aberystwyth]] in 1908–1909 and was [[called to the bar]] at [[Lincoln's Inn]]. He practiced as a barrister in North Wales and in northern England before moving to London in 1910, where he established a successful legal practice. During the [[First World War]] he worked for the [[Board of Trade]]. He [[took silk]] in 1926, becoming a KC.<ref name="Jones"/>

==Early political career==
Davies was elected to the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]] in the [[1929 United Kingdom general election|1929 General Election]] as a [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]] Member of Parliament (MP) for [[Montgomeryshire (UK Parliament constituency)|Montgomeryshire]].<ref name="LG 21 June 1929">{{London Gazette |issue=33508 |date=21 June 1929 |page=4112 }}</ref> From 1929 until 1931 he supported [[David Lloyd George]]'s leadership of the party.{{sfn|Hooson|1998|p=170}} In 1931, the Liberals divided into three groups and he became one of the [[National Liberal Party (UK, 1931)|Liberal National]] MPs supporting the [[National Government (United Kingdom)|National Government]]. He came under increasing pressure from his local Liberal executive and also his predecessor as MP [[David Davies, 1st Baron Davies|Lord Davies]] who was President of Montgomeryshire Liberal Association, to move into opposition.{{sfn|Dutton|2008|p=118}} In 1939 he resigned from both the Liberal Nationals and the National Government whip. In 1940, he was chairman of the [[All Party Action Group]] that played a significant role in forcing the resignation of the Prime Minister, [[Neville Chamberlain]].

==Leader of the Liberal Party==
In 1942, he rejoined the Liberal Party, becoming a prominent figure in the [[Radical Action]] group, which called for the party to withdraw from the [[war-time electoral pact]] and adopt more radical policies. Indeed, at his adoption meeting in June 1945 he declared that "Members of the Labour Party and myself can walk side by side for a long way. There are many things on which we can agree."{{sfn|Jones|1993|p=332}} Despite the fact that he had been absent from the party for a decade, with lingering suspicions that his commitment to Liberalism was less than full, he became leader of the Liberal Party in 1945 after [[Archibald Sinclair]] surprisingly lost his seat in the electoral debacle of that year that reduced the Liberals to just 12 seats in the House of Commons.

Davies had not sought the position of leader and was not enthusiastic about it. However, with only 12 MPs, 6 of whom were only newly elected that year, the party's choice was somewhat limited. It was widely expected and generally hoped (probably even by Davies himself), that he would be only a 'caretaker' leader until the more dynamic and popular Sinclair could get back into the House of Commons. Since that never happened, Davies, was in fact to remain party leader for the next 11 years, taking the Liberals through three general elections.

Davies was President of the London Welsh Trust, which runs the [[London Welsh Centre]], [[Gray's Inn Road]], from 1946 until 1947.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.londonwelsh.org/archives/1796 |title=Our Former Presidents  |year=2010 |access-date=4 February 2011 |website=[[London Welsh Centre]]  |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720025944/http://www.londonwelsh.org/archives/1796 |archive-date=20 July 2011 |df=dmy }}</ref> He was made a [[Privy Council of the United Kingdom|Privy Councillor]] in 1947.

His first general election as party leader, in [[1950 United Kingdom general election|1950]], reduced the party to 9 MPs with barely 9% of the vote. In those of [[1951 United Kingdom general election|1951]] and [[1955 United Kingdom general election|1955]], the Liberals fell back even further, holding only 6 seats, with 2.5% and 2.7% of the vote respectively (although these vote shares were largely attributed to the huge drop in the number of seats the party fought). He finally resigned as leader at the party conference in September 1956 and was succeeded by the much younger and more vigorous [[Jo Grimond]], following what was effectively a coup by the membership against the executive; both Davies and Grimond appeared to be unaware of the coup until it was over.

Davies therefore led the Liberal Party, which, in the late 19th and early 20th century had been a major force in British politics and a frequent party of government, through its lowest period, when it was reduced to a [[minor party]]: the result of the electorate's polarisation between the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] and the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservatives]]. The cliché "A Liberal vote is a wasted vote" argument never held truer than in the 1950s. He was personally well-liked, both in the party and beyond it. The general view of him was that of a personally decent man who did his best in a position to which neither taste nor temperament fitted him.

Davies was an [[alcoholic]] for decades,<ref name="ODNB">{{cite ODNB |last1=Boyd |first1=Francis |title=Davies, Clement Edward |url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-32736 |date=2004 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/32736 |access-date=12 September 2023}}</ref> which left him in a weakened state of health, particularly by the time he took on the burden of party leadership. For two of his three general election campaigns as leader, for example, he was hospitalised. Also, despite the general affection in which he was held, his leadership was widely regarded as lacklustre and ineffective, thus contributing to the party's malaise at a time when it was most in need of direction.

In recent years, however, his role has been revised and treated more sympathetically. Historians now point out that with the [[Cold War]] tensions of the late 1940s and early 1950s in particular, leading the Liberal Party then would have been a challenge for anybody, and just by keeping the party together and in existence at all, Davies made a significant contribution. It has also emerged that he was offered cabinet office (Education Minister) in 1951 by Prime Minister [[Winston Churchill]] in exchange for supporting the new Conservative government but refused on the grounds that it would have destroyed the Liberal Party.

Clement Davies died in 1962, at the age of 78. Though still an MP, he was by then largely detached from the affairs of the Liberal party and acted semi-independently. He was succeeded as Liberal MP for Montgomeryshire by [[Emlyn Hooson]].

==Personal life==
{{Unreferenced section|date=October 2021}}
In 1913, Clement married Jano Elizabeth Davies, a [[Assistant head|senior mistress]] at the [[The Latymer School|Edmonton Latymer School]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Morris |first=Joseph Acton |author-link=Joseph Acton Morris |url=https://archive.org/details/the-history-of-the-latymer-school-at-edmonton-1975_202507 |title=The History of the Latymer School at Edmonton |date=1975 |publisher=The Latymer Foundation at Edmonton}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Clement Davies, 1884-1962 – Journal of Liberal History |url=https://liberalhistory.org.uk/history/clement-davies-edward/ |access-date=2025-07-17 |language=en-US}}</ref> Numerous personal tragedies darkened his life. He lost three of his four children within the space of a few years after the outbreak of the [[Second World War]]. His oldest son, David, died in 1939 as a result of natural causes related to [[epilepsy]], and his daughter Mary (a servicewoman with the [[Auxiliary Territorial Service|ATS]]) committed suicide in 1941 and another son, Geraint, was killed on active service in the [[Welsh Guards]] in 1942. Each of his children died at the age of 24, except for Davies' fourth child, Stanley, who survived until old age.

==Arms==
{{Infobox COA wide
|image = Clement Edward Davies Achievement.png
|motto = Sylfaen Heddwych Yw Cyfraith A Chyfiawnder ''(The Foundation of Peace Is Law And Justice)''<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/baz_manning/22098549879/in/album-72157659963928316/ |title= Lincoln's Inn Great Hall, Wd52 Davies, C |date= 13 July 2009 |publisher=Baz Manning |access-date=20 December 2020}}</ref>}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
===Books and journals===
*[[Violet Bonham Carter]], ed. Mark Pottle, ''Daring to Hope: Diaries 1945–1969'' (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2000)
*{{cite journal |last1=Hooson |first1=Emlyn|author-link = Emlyn Hooson |title=Clement Davies: An Underestimated Welshman and Politician |journal=Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion |series=New Series |date=1998 |volume=4 |pages=168–186 |url=https://datasyllwr.llgc.org.uk/journals/pdf/AWJCR101010.pdf |access-date=17 July 2020}}
*{{cite journal|last1=Jones|first1=J. Graham|title=The Liberal Party and Wales, 1945-79|journal=[[Welsh History Review]]|date=June 1993|volume=16|issue=3|pages=326–355|url=https://datasyllwr.llgc.org.uk/journals/pdf/AWJAJ017068.pdf|access-date=24 January 2017}}
*Alun Wyburn-Powell, ''Clement Davies: Liberal Leader'' (Politico's, 2003) {{ISBN|1-902301-97-8}}
*{{Cite book|last=Dutton|first=David|title=Liberals in Schism - A History of the National Liberal Party|publisher=I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd|year=2008|isbn=978-1845116675|pages=118|doi=10.5040/9780755621118}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20060930234456/http://www.liberalhistory.org.uk/item_single.php?item_id=5&item=biography Clement Davies 1884–1962] biography from the Liberal Democrat History Group
* {{cite web |last1=Clement-Davies |first1=Christopher |title=Clement Davies; Triumph and Tragedy. A personal Portrait of the former Liberal Leader |url=https://lloydgeorgesociety.org.uk/en/document/clement-davies-triumph-and-tragedy-a-personal-portrait-of-the-former-liberal-leader.pdf |publisher=Lloyd-George Society |date=February 2020}} – Lecture on Davies by his grandson – [https://lloydgeorgesociety.org.uk/en/document/clement-davies-presentation-slides.pdf Photographs for the lecture]
* {{Hansard-contribs| mr-clement-davies | Clement Davies }}
* {{PM20|FID=pe/003734}}
* [https://archives.library.wales/index.php/clement-davies-liberal-mp-papers-2 Clement Davies Papers] at the [[National Library of Wales]]
* [https://biography.wales/article/s2-DAVI-EDW-1884 Clement Davies] at the [[Dictionary of Welsh Biography]]

{{s-start}}
{{s-par|uk}}
{{succession box
  | title  = Member of Parliament for [[Montgomeryshire (UK Parliament constituency)|Montgomeryshire]]
  | years  = [[1929 United Kingdom general election|1929]] – [[1962 Montgomeryshire by-election|1962]]
  | before = [[David Davies, 1st Baron Davies|David Davies]]
  | after  = [[Emlyn Hooson]]
}}
{{s-ppo}}
{{succession box
  | title  = [[Leader of the Liberal Party (UK)|Leader of the Liberal Party]]
  | years  = 1945–1956
  | before = [[Sir Archibald Sinclair]]
  | after  = [[Jo Grimond]]
}}
{{succession box|title=President of the [[Welsh Liberal Federation]]|years=1945–1948|before=[[David Lloyd George]]?|after=[[Roderic Bowen]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{UKLiberalLeaders}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Davies, Clement}}
[[Category:1884 births]]
[[Category:1962 deaths]]
[[Category:Alumni of Trinity Hall, Cambridge]]
[[Category:National Liberal Party (UK, 1931) politicians]]
[[Category:Leaders of the Liberal Party (UK)]]
[[Category:Liberal Party (UK) MPs for Welsh constituencies]]
[[Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1929–1931]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1931–1935]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1935–1945]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1945–1950]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1950–1951]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1951–1955]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1955–1959]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1959–1964]]
[[Category:Welsh barristers]]