(Sir) William Beddoe Rees

•  Birth date            April-June 1877 at Maesteg
• Knighthood          June 1917
• Marriage              29 January 1925
• Death date          12 May 1931 at Wimbledon
• Funeral                Monday 18 May 1931 at Morden Cemetery

William Beddoes Rees was born at Maesteg in 1877, the son of Isaac Rees, a carpenter (1881) builder, and grocer (1891) and his wife, Elizabeth Sarah Rees. He was educated privately and at the University of Wales. Subsequently Beddoe Rees trained as an architect, becoming assistant to Harry Teather 1896-1900, and attending Cardiff School of Art. During this period, he also travelled in France, Belgium Germany and Switzerland. He passed the qualifying exam in 1901 and was admitted ARIBA on 3 February 1902, his proposers being the Cardiff architects Edwin Seward, Edwin Montgomery Bruce Vaughan and Edward Henry Bruton. In religion, Rees was a Baptist eventually becoming Joint Treasurer of the National Free Church Council of England and sometime President of the National Free Church Council of Wales.

He commenced independent practice in Cardiff about 1900 when, in a short-lived partnership with J H James, he won the competition for Plasnewydd Presbyterian Chapel, Keppoch Street, Roath, Cardiff. James “disappeared” from the record after tenders were received in September 1900. Henceforth Beddoe Rees worked alone, initially specialising in chapel design. The formation of his practice coincided with the last great surge in chapel building which reached its peak at the time of the 1904-5 Revival when he was said to be producing designs for twelve chapels a year. Eventually, his practice would extend into other parts of Wales, although most of his commissions were always in industrial South Wales. Works in the rest of the UK were few, with a couple of chapels in Scotland and a handful in England. Many of his galleried chapels followed a similar design, Gothic in style with a large traceried gable over the entrance, and a tower or turret placed to one or both sides, containing the stairs to the gallery. Externally the local blue Pennant stone was used for the walls with contrasting cream Bath stone used for the tracery and dressings. Even where these materials were not readily available, a similar colour combination was used. Roofs were generally of Welsh slate from a number of quarries.

In 1903 Beddoe Rees published one of the few manuals on chapel architecture: 'Chapel building: Hints and Suggestions,' intended for the guidance of ministers and deacons. The manual also served as a useful advertisement for his own practice, containing as it did, illustrations of several of the author's own designs, both completed and proposed.

By 1909 the great age of chapel building was over, although Beddoe Rees continued to obtain some chapel commissions. His last known designs were for a Presbyterian church, at Low Fell, near Gateshead and Ararat English Baptist Chapel, Whitchurch, Cardiff, both dating from 1914. About 1909 this decline in chapel building led Beddoe Rees to review his personal and professional interests which included an increased involvement in politics as noted in the local press:

MR. BEDDOE REES, the famous architect of Glamorgan, has decided to devote a large proportion of his leisure time in future to politics, and no doubt his architectural experience will greatly enhance the constructive power of the Liberal Party, should a convenient and worthy seat be secured for him. [Cymro a’r Celt Llundain 20 March 1909 page 1]

Professionally he developed an increasing interest in the problems associated with the housing conditions of miners and was amongst the pioneers of Housing Reform in South Wales. In 1910 Beddoe Rees established the grandly titled “Welsh Garden Cities Limited,” in part a developer, in part a design and build organisation.  While the housing schemes they produced offered an distinct improvement on the ubiquitous terraced housing of the South Wales valleys, Rees was never part of the Garden City Movement. Standards and build quality tended to be lower than found in other Garden City estates such as Fforestfach, Swansea, by Pepler and Allen in 1910-1913. In truth, the first of Rees's schemes, Gilfach Garden Village, of 1910-1914 was a garden village in name only, with little evidence of the garden city/suburb/village ideal apparent. Further its appearance does not follow the usual Arts and Crafts “garden village” aesthetic, notwithstanding the examples offered by Port Sunlight, Bournville and Letchworth.

Rees was knighted in June 1917 for his work as chairman of Welsh Garden Cities Ltd,  and for his non-conformist activities in Wales. After 1917, Beddoe Rees built up extensive business interests, and was Chairman of a number of companies, including Ashburnham Collieries, Ltd, Ashburnham Steamship and Coal Co. Ltd, North Amman Collieries, Ltd; Director Amalgamated Anthracite Collieries, Ltd; Welsh Anthracite Collieries, Ltd, etc. By the early 1920s he was seemingly a very wealthy man.  In 1920 he bought Ty Mynydd in Radyr, a house with eleven bedrooms, a large library and over 5 acres of grounds. Mr and Mrs Dahl, Roald Dahl’s parents bought the house in 1918 and the author described it in his book in Boy: “a mighty house with turrets on its roof and with majestic lawns and terraces all around it. There were many acres of farm and woodland, and a number of cottages for the staff….” Following the death of his father in 1920 the Dahls sold Ty Mynydd to Beddoe Rees. Among the improvements was the building of a six or nine-hole golf course at Craig Field, on the estate. However, his meteoric rise was largely based on borrowed money as would become apparent a dozen years later.

Nonetheless, he briefly succeeded in joining the establishment, becoming a Member of Parliament and his wife being presented at Court shortly after their marriage. Rees stood unsuccessfully for Parliament as a Liberal at Cannock, Staffordshire, in the 1918 general election. At the 1923 General Election Beddoe Rees succeeded in winning the seat of Bristol South and held the seat in the 1924 election. However, in 1929 he was surprisingly defeated by the Labour candidate. He consistently displayed his political orientation, being fiercely opposed to Labour and socialist ideas and took the opportunity of his maiden parliamentary speech to oppose a Bill designed to establish a minimum wage for coal miners: miners whose wages were paying for the houses he had built.

On 29 January 1925 Sir Beddoe Rees, MP married Elsbeth Gwendoline the daughter of Robert Jones-Griffith, of Dolgellau at the Welsh Presbyterian Church, Charing Cross Road, London, having previously been refused permission to use the House of Commons Chapel for a non-conformist marriage service. They had one child, Rosemary, born on 28 May 1927 (died, Bath 15 September 2009).

Towards the end of his life, Rees suffered a complete reversal of his fortunes and was adjudged bankrupt on 24 July 1930. However, in March 1931 his debts were discharged, despite the objection of the Official Receiver that he had engaged in rash and hazardous speculation and unjustifiable extravagance in living. The Registrar of the Bankruptcy Court accepted that the depression in the Welsh coal industry had been out of Rees's control and that the state of the stock market meant other share dealings financed on borrowed monies provided no income in dividend. He also seemed to accept that Rees had been punished personally, in business and socially by the fact of his bankruptcy.

A few weeks later, on 13 May 1931, Beddoe Rees died at his home in Wimbledon and was buried quietly in Morden Cemetery.

Address
1900-1905    37, St. Mary Street, Cardiff,
1905-1917    3 Dumfries Place Cardiff (change of address March 1905)

Residence
1891        Albert Street Bridgend
1901        14 Northcote Street, Cardiff
1911        Cardiff
1919        Sir W Brddoe Rees, The Beeches, Cardiff, Director Ashburnham Collieries Ltd (Times 15 Dec 1919 p27)
1920        Ty Mynydd, Radyr, Glamorgan
19??        17 Melbury Road Kensington
1925-1931    72 Ashley Gardens, Westminster (Times 4 March 1931 page
1931        18 Crescent Road, Wimbledon death notice

Reference    Builder 8 February 1902 page 129 – elected ARIBA
Reference    London Gazette 10 February 1931 page 987 – bankruptcy
Reference    William Beddoe Rees, Chapel Building: Hints and Suggestions (Cardiff: Cardiff Printing Works, 1903)