Researching William Rees

William Rees (8 November 1802 – 8 November 1883), usually known in Wales by his bardic name of Gwilym Hiraethog, was a Welsh poet and author, one of the major figures of Welsh literature during the 19th century.

Gwilym Hiraethog took his pseudonym from his birthplace, a farm on the Hiraethog mountain in Denbighshire. Largely self-educated, he was a polymath, who took an interest in astronomy and political science as well as being a Nonconformist minister and a leading literary figure.

In 1843 he founded the Welsh language journal Yr Amserau ("The Times") in Liverpool. He used the newspaper to campaign for the disestablishment of the Church in Wales. Rees also penned the hymn text of Dyma gariad fel y moroedd (Here is love, vast as the ocean), which was first published in 1847 but strongly associated with the 1904-1905 Welsh revival. His Helyntion Bywyd Hen Deiliwr (Predicaments of an Old Tailor) (1877) was a pioneering attempt to fashion a Welsh-language novel.

Rees was born in Llanelli and attended the Royal Veterinary College, qualifying as a vet in 1951. He worked as a MAFF Veterinary Officer from 1953 to 1980. He became Chief Veterinary Officer in 1980, dealing with issues of salmonella in eggs and bovine spongiform encephalopathy in cattle. After retirement in 1988, he became president of the World Organisation for Animal Health animal health code commission. He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1987.

Rees was born in Bushey, Hertfordshire and educated at Watford Grammar School for Boys. He began his professional life with Salter Rex & Co while studying for a professional degree at the College of Estate Management in London. During the Second World War he joined the Royal Artillery and later transferred to the Royal Engineers, with which he served during the Normandy landings. When discharged after the war he had achieved the rank of Major.

After the war he became a lecturer at the College of Estate Management, the leading British institution of higher learning in the fields of property, and from 1948 to 1951 was Head of the Valuation Department. In 1949 he became joint author, with David Lawrence and Harold May, of the second edition of Modern Methods of Valuation and subsequently edited the next four editions. In 1951 he moved to Richard Ellis as head of the valuation department. During this period he acted for Mrs Harvey in the Harvey v Crawley case, which gave rise to the concept of Crawley costs. In 1961 he became senior partner of Turner Rudge & Turner, where he stayed until he became a member of the Lands Tribunal in 1973, where he gave lead decisions in a number of important cases. In 1978 he devised and edited the first five editions of Valuation: Principles into Practice.