Edward Owen (Q67049)

Edward Owen (1853-1943), journalist, barrister and antiquarian, was born at Menai Bridge, Anglesey, the only son of Edward and Sarah Owen. He was the first Welshman to enter the Civil Service by public examination, and was appointed to the India Office in c. 1873. He contributed regularly to the Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion (which published his Catalogue of the Manuscripts Relating to Wales in the British Museum) and Archaeologia Cambrensis. In 1896, his work on changes in land tenure in medieval Wales appeared as an Appendix to the Royal Commission's Report on Land in Wales, followed by the publication of Ancient tenures of land in North Wales and the Marches, with Alfred Neobard Palmer of Wrexham, in 1910. When the Royal Commission on Ancient Monuments of Wales was established in 1908, he was appointed as the first secretary and editor of its volumes and inventories. He was Reader in Welsh Medieval Antiquities at the University of Liverpool, 1921-1943. He died 8th November 1943 and was buried in St Seirol's Churchyard, Holyhead.