An unsung pioneer of folk life studies in Wales: Sir Daniel Lleufer Thomas, 1863-1940

ABSTRACT This paper examines the contribution of an individual known in Wales as one of a number from humble backgrounds who rose to make significant contributions to late-Victorian and early twentieth-century civic society. Daniel Lleufer Thomas’s activity in the field of sociological recording, however, has been little recognized in his own country let alone more widely. His contribution to two Royal Commissions in the last decade of the 19th century was seminal and led to Iorwerth Peate’s decision to study the historical domestic architecture of Wales, thus influencing directly the growth and development of vernacular architecture as a field of study within the broader field of regional ethnology.