Remembering Howard Davies - an obituary
We are sad to report that Howard Davies, who was a lecturer in the Law School for over 30 years, has died at the age of 74. He had been ill with cancer for just over a year.
Howard will be remembered by those who were taught by him in Company Law lectures, Torts case classes, Criminal Law seminars and, above all, in Jurisprudence, always his greatest passion. Not all of the literally thousands of students who attended his Jurisprudence lectures over the years at Leeds were truly interested in the subject but all were grateful for the infectious enthusiasm and panache which he brought to the subject and, indeed, to all his teaching.
Howard Davies was born on 6 November 1943 in Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales, the son of a coal miner. He read Law at the University of Wales at Aberystwyth, where he excelled in debating and developed a deep interest in Jurisprudence. After graduating he began studying for an LLM in University College London, but in the course of that year he was offered a post at the University of Leeds teaching Jurisprudence, on the recommendation of his professor at Aberystwyth. He promptly gave up his course in London and took up the post as Lecturer in Law at the University of Leeds. Howard remained at Leeds for the rest of his career, apart from the academic years 1986-88 which he spent as a Visiting Associate Professor at the University of Louisville, Kentucky.
Howard became a Senior Fellow in 1997, finally retiring completely in the year 2000. In 2002 he and his wife, Gwyneth Pitt, herself a former lecturer at Leeds, moved to Kingston-upon-Thames. In retirement he devoted his time to the voracious reading of history and biography, spending time in France, going to the opera, walking in Richmond Park and Wimbledon Common, and – of course – to perfecting his encyclopaedic knowledge of the pubs of south west London, with special reference to those belonging to Young’s Brewery.
He is survived by Gillian, the daughter of his first marriage, and his wife, Gwyneth.
