Gabrielle Davies

Gabrielle Davies
DPhil Student
Merton College
gabrielle.davies@merton.ox.ac.uk

Research Topic:

Building the New Wales?: National Identities and the Politics of Post-war Reconstruction in Second World War Wales

Supervisor: Matthew Grimley

 

Doctoral Research:

During the Second World War, Wales became recognised by the British Government as an independent and distinctive administrative region for the first time. The epoch saw the creation of the Advisory Council on Welsh Reconstruction in 1942 to address ‘problems of reconstruction’ that were of ‘special application to Wales’ and the first parliamentary Welsh Day in 1944 to discuss the ‘distinctive problems and needs of Wales, not as an area, not as a part of England, but as a nation’. Demands for a greater Welsh dimension to planning and policy were further voiced by Welsh MPs who advocated for a Welsh Secretary of State paving the way for the 1950s Parliament for Wales Campaign. Despite this, no detailed study has yet been made of the war’s impact on Welsh identity politics and post-war reconstruction.

 

My research addresses this historiographical aperture in order to nuance traditional left-leaning nationalistic narratives of heightened wartime ‘Britishness’ and national solidarity synonymous with Britain’s ‘people’s war’. Focusing on proposals from Welsh politicians within the Labour, Conservative, Liberal and Welsh Nationalist parties it explores how a Welsh national consciousness shaped proposals for post-war reconstruction and in what ways this differed for Welsh MPs across political parties. Drawing attention to the presence of political and cultural nationalism in wartime Wales, this study seeks to contribute to wider historiographical debates on the plurality of British identity within the multinational wartime state.

 

Academic and Professional Training:

University of Oxford 2021-2022

  • MSt in Modern British History 1850-Present with Distinction 

King's College London 2017-2020

  • First Class BA (Hons) degree in History 
  • Elected Associate of King's College London (A.K.C)
  • History Student Ambassador 

 

Scholarships and Prizes:

  • James Pantyfedwen Foundation Scholarship recipient (2021, 2023 & 2024)
  • King's College London History Dissertation Prize 2020
  • History of Parliament Trust Prize nominee 2020
  • Emrys Davies Memorial Prize for History