Dai Thomas

I knew Bishop David Thomas, who has died suddenly at his home, as a fellow seminarian at Staggers; and, before that, as a contemporary in the Honour School of Litterae Humaniores in this University. He was Welsh and affable; anxious that we should be aware of his ability to speak Welsh; immensely proud that his father was a bishop and distinctly ambitious to follow him in that ministry. When he eventually became the Welsh 'Flying Bishop' he delighted in explaining to the unWelsh that PAB, the acronym for Provincial Assistant Bishop, was Welsh for Pope.

Dai was enormously interested in Liturgy and, I think, played a major role in that area in the counsels of the Church in Wales; but ... Oh dear, this shows me in a poor light ... I have always enjoyed recalling that as a student he failed, by quite a margin, to win the Shaftoe Prize (for Liturgy; the previous winner had been David Hope, now Bishop emeritus of London).

He and I and Michael Reynolds went off in our different directions to get married on the Saturday in the Octave of Easter in 1967, because that day fell between the tempus clausum of Lent, and imminent Ordination to the Diaconate on Trinity Sunday. So Dai and Ros will have celebrated recently their Golden Wedding. Please God, this will be a comfort to her; and may God bless and mercifully console her and their family.

May he rest in peace.