Henry Davies (journalist)

Henry Davies (2 March 1804 – 4 March 1890) was a Wales-born journalist, publisher and librarian at Cheltenham, England who took an active part in the town’s political life, and edited the Cheltenham Looker-On for 57 years.

Davies was the son of John and Ann Davies and was born at Bridgend, Glamorgan. Little is known of his childhood, but he had a good literary education, while at the same time becoming steeped in the traditions of Wales and the Welsh language. At the age of 18 in 1822 he wrote patriotic Welsh poetry that was read at the Brecon Eisteddfod. In his early twenties, he spent a few years in London, establishing friendships at the London Institution, and began his literary career by contributing both prose and verse to the Literary Souvenir and other publications edited by Alaric Watts. He was living at Throgmorton Street in 1826 when he wrote another "spirited poetic address" for the opening of the Brecon Eisteddfod that year. He was librarian of the Metropolitan Cambrian Society or Cymmrodorion Society in 1828 while John Parry was Registrar of Music. In 1829 he won a prize from the Metropolitan Cambrian Society for an essay in Welsh on "Settlement of the Normans in Wales". He was appointed editor of the new Cambrian Quarterly Magazine but was asked to resigh before the first issue was published.Pearson Thompson invited him to Cheltenham in 1830, to undertake duties at the new Montpellier Rotunda, where he opened the Montpellier Library, a subscription library. He appeared at the Beaumaris Eisteddfod in the same year. In 1832 he read a poem at the Royal Eisteddfod at Beaumaris attended by Princess Victoria.

In 1833, Davies declined the Editorship of the Gloucester Chronicle, which was then about to be started, and originated his own weekly newspaper and social register, the Cheltenham Looker-On, publishing the first issue in May 1833. Initially, the Looker-On was a literary periodical rather than a journal of fashion and was what it professed to be "A Note Book of the Sayings and Doings of Cheltenham". He remained editor for 57 years until his death in 1890, when his son Edward Llewellyn Davies took over publication. As well as editor it is likely that he was a major contributor to the periodical’s literary output. All this time he ran a circulating library and bookshop from Montpellier.

...
Wikipedia