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Welsh artist Roger Davies was born in Briton Ferry, South Wales in 1938. He was one of four brothers to attend Lancing College (Teme House). It was at Lancing, under the tutelage of Graham Collier, that Roger found his passion for art. University wasn’t for Roger, although he loved to recount the tale that his father had negotiated him a place at Jesus College Oxford as part of a brick supply deal. It was always going to be art school; initially Swansea and then on to Chelsea from 1957 – 1961. He returned to South Wales after graduating, finding patronage, winning prizes and establishing himself as one of the leading young contemporary artists of his generation. His work was added to the collections of the Welsh Arts Council, the Contemporary Arts Society and the National Library of Wales, to name a few. However, strong family winds blew Roger off course and by the late sixties, he was dragged into the family business, holding back a generational artistic talent.
Whilst not necessarily suited to business, he leveraged his artistic background to become an industrial designer, building an engineering company in Neath. Roger would conceive and draw it, his engineers would make it reality. Together they built Hotspur Armoured Products, introducing the first armoured Land Rovers into the Northern Irish Troubles, the company name ‘Hotspur’ becoming eponymous with all armoured vehicles in the province. Roger’s products were impactful and saved the lives of many policemen and service personnel. He continued producing armoured vehicles until the mid-90s, later inventing a bolt-on armouring kit for Landrovers, which was used by all press and media vehicles in the Bosnian conflict, again saving many lives.
Roger was certainly a character. Eccentric, resourceful, hugely well read and expert – often in the most obscure topics – and with an insatiable thirst for knowledge and learning. He was gripped by history, fuelled in no small part by his reading of the books of Sir Henry Rider Haggard as a child. He became fascinated by Africa, the Zulu war in particular. It was serendipitous that he would find a way of travelling extensively around Africa on business trips, managing to visit the battlefields of Rorke’s Drift and Isandhlwana. But only Roger could return from a defence sales trip as the Crown Jeweller for King Goodwill of Kwa Zulu by Royal Appointment, going on to make a ceremonial silver assegai.
From an artistic perspective, he was a polymath: painter, draughtsman, sculptor, silversmith, writer, poet, illustrator. His true legacy is his creative output – a body of work that will be passed down through generations of the family he leaves behind. Paintings aside, his creative legacy also includes: the silver Head Choristers’ medallions at Llandaff Cathedral, the silver chalice at St Illtyd’s Church in Llantwit Major, 3 historical fiction novels, a book of poetry, and most extraordinarily, a handwritten and fully illustrated edition of the Mabinogion - a collection of Welsh tales based on old Celtic legends and mythology. This latter undertaking took him over 5 years to complete.
When Roger was diagnosed with cancer, he knew his time was limited but he fought it bravely, defying the odds. He was an artist to his core, an unstoppable creative force, which gave him the energy to live and to fight the challenges that life threw at him. In his final weeks, he was counting down not in days, but in the number of paintings he needed to complete before his time was up. Married to Elizabeth in 1966, he was a truly dedicated and devoted husband, caring for his wife right up to his final days. They shared their 57th wedding anniversary in September 2023 before Roger passed away, aged 85, in November 2023, leaving behind two sons and 7 grandchildren.