Gertrude Hermes : wood engraver and sculptor 
Gustav Holst : composer 
Joyce Grenfell : comedian, singer, actor and monologist 
George Bernard Shaw : Irish playwright and political activist 
Dame Isobel Baillie : Scottish soprano 
Paul Nash : painter and war artist 
Elsie Suddaby : English lyric soprano 
Stanley Baldwin : three times UK conservative prime minister 
Nancy, Viscountess Astor : first elected female MP to take her seat 
Sir Henry Wood : English conductor and founder of the annual Promenade Concerts 
Violet Markham : social reformer and campaigner against women’s suffrage 
Ralph Vaughan Williams : English composer 
Dame Sybil Thorndyke : actor 
Sir John Barbirolli : English conductor of the Hallé Orchestra and cellist 
Toni von Sender MP : German-born socialist and feminist 
Lascelles Abercrombie : poet and literary critic 
Jelly d’Arányi : Hungarian violinist 
Thomas J. Watson Sir : Chair and CEO of IBM 
Agnes Miller Parker : wood engraver
Gwendoline and Margaret Davies could simply have made Gregynog Hall their home, a quiet retreat to receive company and to display their internationally-renowned collection of French nineteenth-century painting and sculpture. Instead, the sisters chose to share their imposing mansion in rural Montgomeryshire for the benefit of others.
Gwendoline and Margaret championed social, educational and cultural initiatives in Wales. Their renowned music festivals and private printing press, as well as the national and international conferences that the sisters hosted, attracted eminent visitors from near and far. Gregynog’s Visitor Books record a constant stream of houseguests. Up to forty might stay at the Hall at any time, while others lodged nearby.
Each gathering would, the sisters hoped, go some way to build a new Wales in the aftermath of the Great War. Ernest Rhys, author and editor of the Everyman series of literary classics, thought it remarkable to find in the sisters such ‘wealth wise and culture kind’.
Meet here some of Gregynog’s famous visitors and houseguests during the 1920s and 1930s:
Gwendoline Elizabeth Davies 
Margaret Sidney Davies 
Lascelles Abercrombie, George Bernard Shaw, Dora Herbert Jones, Thomas Jones, Eirene Jones, Jane Blaker, Margaret Davies and unidentified. 
Thomas Jones and George Bernard Shaw 
Lascelles Abercrombie, George Bernard Shaw and Thomas Jones 
Adrian Boult and Lascelles Abercrombie 
Dutch children at Gregynog 
Dutch children : back row Jane Blaker (left), Margaret Davies (4th from left) and Gwendoline Davies (5th from left). Centre front, Jane Blaker’s dog Nelson. 
Dutch children : centre row Gwendoline (2nd from left), Margaret (4th from left). Jane Blaker, standing back row right. Nelson, front centre. 
Dutch children : seated centre row Jane Blaker and Nelson (left), Gwendoline (4th from left) and Margaret (6th from left). 
Mike Davies, the sister’s nephew, and friends. 
Unidentified, Joyce Grenfell and Keith Faulkner. 
Henry Walford Davies, unidentified and Lascelles Abercrombie 
Lascelles Abercrombie at the Boathouse 
Stanley Baldwin and his family
