10 August 1908 a Royal Commission was authorised and appointed by King Edward VII to "make an inventory of the Ancient and Historical Monuments and Constructions connected with or illustrative of the contemporary culture, civilisation and conditions of life of the people in Wales and Monmouthshire from the earliest times, and to specify those which seem most worthy of preservation". This last injunction was the most urgent purpose of the Commission in the eyes of the legislators, but the inventory was its essential preliminary. The protection of significant sites under the Ancient Monuments Act of Queen Victoria's reign had been severely hampered by a basic lack of knowledge of the country's stock of monuments. So it was felt that an independent and official body was needed to prepare a reliable inventory from which examples could be selected and recommended for statutory protection. This need was not peculiar to Wales, and in 1908 identical Royal Commissions were established for Scotland and England too. Commissioners The early commissioners were distinguished men (there was no woman) who were notable figures in Welsh cultural life, each with a distinctive contribution to make to the task ahead. Their involvement in such long-established scholarly institutions as the Cambrian Archaeological Association and the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion proved invaluable to the Royal Commission from the beginning. For the first four decades of its existence it was based, like other Royal Commissions, in London, which allowed easy access to the British Museum, the Public Record Office and the Cymmrodorion Society, which also had its headquarters in the capital. The Royal Commission's first chairman was Sir John Rhŷs (died 1915), philologist and professor of Celtic at Oxford University. He oversaw the publication of the first four inventory volumes, which appeared in quick succession: for Montgomeryshire (1911), Flintshire (1912), Radnorshire (1913) and Denbighshire (1914). The second chairman (until his death in 1934) was Evan Vincent Evans. By profession an accountant and journalist, he was a friend of Welsh politicians and a stalwart of eisteddfodau and the Cymmrodorion. The early commissioners, included Edward Anwyl (died 1914), another philologist, professor of Welsh and Comparative Philology at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth. Griffith Hartwell Jones (died 1944) was an Anglican clergyman living in Surrey but also chairman of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion. Robert Hughes was a former lord mayor of Cardiff, which had recently been created a city. Henry Owen, a