In Memoriam: Professor Christie Davies 1953-1961

The death in August at the age of 75 of Professor Christie Davies saw the passing of one of the most remarkable academics produced by the school in the post second world war period. His outstanding ‘O’ and ‘A’ level examination results at Dynevor led on to him being awarded a place at Emmanuel College Cambridge to study Economics, in which he gained a double first. He graduated with one of the only two first class honours awarded in Economics in Cambridge in 1964, of which his was the premier. He later gained a PhD from Cambridge.

Not content with academic success he also became President of the prestigious Cambridge Union, and performed and toured with the Cambridge Footlights Revue alongside such luminaries as Eric Idle.

Apart from two years as a producer for the BBC’s 3rd Programme he devoted his career to academia and was for over 30 years associated with the University of Reading where he was Professor of Sociology. On his retirement in 2002 he became an Emeritus Professor at Reading and continued with a prodigious output of articles, interviews and intellectual comment on a wide variety of topics. He was particularly interested in humour in all its forms and published several well received books on the subject.

Presciently he was very anti EU, mainly on the basis that the British character did not lend itself to integration with our continental neighbours, and lectured to the Bruges group and other jingoistic organisations.

His contemporaries at Dynevor will have many memories of this remarkable pupil. He was a keen supporter of Tom Chandler’s Literary and Debating Society and it was no surprise that he toured American Universities as a member of English Speaking Union’s British Universities debating team.

Roger Beynon, Dynevor 1953 -1961.

Further Obituaries of Professor Christie Davies may be found at:

https://www.reading.ac.uk/internal/staffportal/news/articles/spsn-739835.aspx

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2017/09/15/christie-davies-author-sociologist-obituary/