George Maitland Lloyd Davies

George Maitland Lloyd Davies (30 April 1880 – 16 December 1949), formerly George Maitland Temple Davies, was a Welsh pacifist and Member of Parliament for the University of Wales.

Davies was born in Peel Road, Sefton Park, Liverpool, grandson on maternal side of a noted Welsh preacher, John Jones, Talysarn; his family was wealthy - his cousin was David Davies of Llandinam, a Welsh industrial and political magnate. At 24 he became secretary of a Liverpool bank; when his health demanded a temporary rest, he was sent with a large salary to a manager's post in Wrexham in 1908. He later sought a complete change and took up agricultural work, then in 1913 went on to be secretary of a housing scheme, the Welsh Planning and Housing Trust,

As a Liberal non-conformist he disparaged the National Service League's demand for conscription, and believed the answer was to volunteer militarily, so he took an officer's commission in the Territorial Army with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers while working at Wrexham. By early 1914 he came to realise that military force was incompatible with his deepening Christian devotion, and resigned. At the end of 1914 he became full-time paid Assistant Secretary of the newly formed Fellowship of Reconciliation. A military service tribunal in 1916 allowed him conscientious objector exemption, conditional on Work of National Importance mediated through the Friends Ambulance Unit General Service section. He first worked in a FoR home for disturbed children, trying to put into practice his belief in the goodness of human nature. Then he went to work on sheep farms in the hills of Llyn. However, he began regularly to preach pacifism in the market place, so his exemption was withdrawn. This meant he was sent a notice to report for military training; when he ignored that he was arrested by the civil police and taken before the magistrates, who handed him over to the military. For disobeying orders he was court-martialled (in a depot where he had previously commanded troops) and imprisoned in Wormwood Scrubs, London, and Winson Green. Birmingham, between 1917 and 1919. After the war he worked for a time at Gregynog, for the Misses Davies.

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