Gareth Rhys Edwards (11 June 1956 – 25 June 2025) was a mad, infuriating, kind, wise, generous and consummately professional Welshman who came late to the law. Admitted in 1986, he had several posts including running his own firm Crangle Edwards and finding what many of his contemporaries saw as his niche.
Looking after solicitors and their staff accused of professional misconduct by the Solicitors Regulation Authority was made for Gareth. He served as a board member of the Solicitors Assistance Scheme (SAS) for many years. In the early days, at a meeting in a member’s home, off came the Edwards jacket and he used their tools to fix a plumbing problem.
He hated injustice, unfairness or prejudice, integrity his watchword. His professional clients had a rock behind them. He told them the truth. A morning hearing would have him come down from Manchester the night before to stay in a glorified Euston B&B. Fairness meant no costly hotels.
If matters could not be settled with the SRA, he was in his element before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal. Getting to the point and with a firm grasp of his brief, he had the gift of commanding the tribunal’s attention. Over the years he made friends and allies of its members. They knew to trust him. His colleagues welcomed his shared tips and quiet words of advice. He certainly got me out of a few looming scrapes.
Always a child of Abercynon, his wide interests outside work included loud bands, clocks (he hoarded them and sometimes they all went off together), military history, especially WW2 when his schoolmaster father had served in the Royal Navy, along with various hands-on building projects. A generous host on Rugby International weekends, he showed me nearby Aberfan where the children’s graves lie, still immaculate. He felt survivor’s guilt, so easily could he have been one of those pupils. A seeming earthiness hid a cultured man with a surprising hinterland.
He dealt stoically with the ghastliness that is pancreatic cancer and leaves a widow, Jane, and two children. Their loss is incalculable. We mourn but also celebrate the memory of a fine SAS colleague and splendid human being.
Lindsay James Keith is a former colleague of Gareth's
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