Welsh Journals

PRESENTATION OF THE CYMMRODORION MEDAL TO SIR WYNN WHELDON, K.B.E., D.S.O., LL.D., President of the Society. THE Cymmrodorion Medal was presented to Sir Wynn Wheldon, K.B.E., D.S.O., LL.D., President of the Honourable Society, at a meeting held in the Lecture Theatre of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine on Friday, 25 March 1955, with Sir Emrys Evans, a Vice-President of the Society, in the Chair. An account of the history of the Medal was given by the Honorary Secretary (Sir John Cecil-Williams, LL.D.). Sir Wynn was presented to the Assembly by Sir Rhys Hopkin Morris, Q.C., M.P., a Vice-President of the Society. The presentation of the Medal to Sir Wynn was made by Sir Emrys Evans. In 1955 the Society's Coat of Arms was substituted for the Three Graces which had adorned the obverse side of the Medal since it was first awarded in 1883, and Sir Wynn was the first recipient of the Medal in its new form. On the periphery of the Medal were inscribed the words "Cyflwynwyd i Syr Wynn Powell Wheldon, K.B.E., D.S.O., M.A., LL.D., Llywydd y Gymdeithas, am ei waith nodedig a diflino dros Gymru." THE PRESENTATION BY SIR RHYS HOPKIN MORRIS. It is with a perfect distrust of my own abilities to discharge the task, a privilege though it is, that I present to you Sir Wynn Powell Wheldon to receive at your hands the highest honour which it is in the power of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion to bestow. My task is rendered all the more difficult for Sir Wynn belongs to that class to which the saying of John Selden applies-Uthey that govern most make the least noise." Sir Wynn has touched life at many and varied points-lawyer, soldier, administrator, he has been each in turn-but it is as an administrator that he has elected to lead the greater part of his life, first as the Registrar of the University College of North Wales, Bangor, and later, as the Permanent Secretary of the Welsh Department of the Ministry of Education. It is unfortunate, for my purpose today, that the most responsible functions of the Administrator are also of necessity the most secret and confidential. The advice he tenders, the memoranda he supplies, the minutes he records, the reports he submits, all are secret and hidden from the vulgar gaze they rest securely guarded in the departmental archives, and, in this country, they are not Published until the events with which they deal are long past.