Ednyfed Hudson Davies

{{Short description|British politician (1929–2018)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}}

Gwilym Ednyfed Hudson-Davies{{cite web|url=https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/officers/TI3GsxsXYOaB_A4uHZlgurdmlIM/appointments |title=Gwilym Ednyfed Hudson-Davies |publisher=Companies House |accessdate=11 January 2018 }} (4 December 1929 – 11 January 2018), known as Ednyfed Hudson Davies, was a Welsh politician and Member of Parliament (MP).

He was born in Llanelli, the son of Ebenezer Curig Davies and his wife Enid (née Hughes). They moved to Bangor when Ednyfed was a child. Although both sets of grandparents were Welsh speaking, differences in dialect sometimes made communication difficult.{{cite web|url=http://www.newforestcentre.org.uk/obituary-ednyfed-hudson-davies/|title=Obituary: Ednyfed Hudson Davies|website=New Forest Centre|access-date=3 February 2018}}

Hudson Davies was educated at Dynevor Grammar School, Swansea, the University College, Wales in Swansea, and Balliol College, Oxford. He became a lecturer in government and a broadcaster. Davies was elected Labour Party MP for Conway in 1966, serving there until 1970. He was later elected for Caerphilly, in 1979. In 1981, he was among the Labour MPs who defected to the new Social Democratic Party.

In 1983, in Caerphilly, it was the Liberal side of the SDP-Liberal Alliance which put up a candidate. Davies therefore did not stand in Caerphilly, but was adopted in Basingstoke, having moved to the New Forest after marrying Amanda Barker-Mill in 1972. He lost comprehensively as it was a strongly Conservative seat. The Liberals also did not win in Caerphilly.

Hudson-Davies remained active in public life as chairman of a museum trust in the New Forest in the south of England.{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/cymrufyw/42649137 |title=Y cyn-AS Llafur ac SDP Ednyfed Hudson Davies wedi marw |work=BBC Cymru Fyw |date=11 January 2018 |language=Welsh |accessdate=11 January 2018 }}

His first marriage ended in divorce in 1994 and in 2016 he married Sue Owen. He had twin daughters from his first marriage and a stepdaughter from his second.

He died on 11 January 2018, aged 88.{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2018/01/14/ednyfed-hudson-davies-welsh-language-champion-labour-mp-obituary|title=Ednyfed Hudson Davies, Welsh language champion and Labour MP – obituary|date=14 January 2018|website=The Telegraph|location=London|access-date=3 February 2018}}