Cylchgronau Cymru

distinguished scholars in his specialist field, but he always responded with help and encouragement. Retirement was nothing more than a statutory formality and he continued teaching, research and writing to the day of his death. And if he was interested in people he was also, as a good geographer, attached to place. Carmarthen always retained a special importance for him, as did Aberystwyth, the College where he was a mainstay of the Old Students Association, and the town where he spent his working life. He wrote on both towns, whilst his History of Llanbadarn Fawr is an impressive symbol of his committment both to a place and its people. University teachers are supposed to excel in the three fields of administration, research and teaching. As an administrator Emrys Bowen can hardly be counted. His filing system was to heap letter upon letter on his desk in precarious and often over- balancing piles where the only order was stratigraphic, whilst his filing cabinets contained chocolate bars or cakes. But he always commanded the loyalty of his staff and built up what was in his day one of the largest Departments of Geography in Britain. As a researcher his work was marked by an innovative intuition which had both its own genius and quality. As a teacher he was supreme. His exposition was masterly, based on careful structure, triad upon triad in the oldest of Welsh traditions and delivered with the timing of a consummate actor at one with his audience. The University College video-recorded some his lectures and the title given to them 'classic lectures' was wholly appropriate for Emrys Bowen had made them his own classics in his own time. I wonder if there can be anyone here who never heard him give that most famous of all his lectures on 'The Welsh Drovers'. A death is often said to end an era; in this case it is surely true. But that era here at Aberystwyth, and in a much wider context too, was one created by the distinctive scholarship and above all the singular character and personality of Emrys Bowen himself; he was a man who made his own era. For a man who was so quintessentially Welsh and who was so distinguished in his academic contribution there is surely no better final word than Williams Parry's englyn in which he portrays the modesty and the quality of 'A Scholar': Llednais oedd fel llwydnos haf, llariaidd iawn Fel lloer ddwys Gorffenaf. O'r addfwyn yr addfwynaf Ac o'r gwyr y goreu gaf. A tribute to E.G.Bowen delivered at the Memorial Service on 27th February 1984 by Professor Harold Carter, who succeded E.G. Bowen in 1968 as Gregynog Professor of Geography in Aberystwyth.