Herbert Isambard Owen (1850-1927) was born at Chepstow in Monmouthshire, south Wales. He graduated from Cambridge University in 1872 and studied medicine at St. George's Hospital, London. He became consultant, lecturer and dean at St. George's and was vice president of the Medical Society of London.
He was involved in the restoration of the Cymmrodorion Society in 1873 and active in campaigns for the preservation and use of the Welsh language. He was prominent in a scheme for the union of the major Welsh higher education establishments and the formation of the University of Wales in 1891-1892 and was deputy chancellor from its foundation in 1894 till 1910. He was principal of Armstrong College, Newcastle-on-Tyne in 1904 and vice chancellor of Bristol University from 1909 to 1921. King Edward VII knighted him at his coronation in 1902.
Sir Isambard Owen was executor of the will of Prince Louis Lucien Bonaparte (1813-1891) and may also have acted as a medical advisor to the Prince, whose father Prince Lucien Bonaparte was a brother of Emperor Napoleon I. Prince Louis Lucien lived in London and was a philologist with an interest in the Celtic languages including Welsh, which he was learning. Sir Isambard Owen also acted as executor of the will of Welsh sculptor Joseph Edwards (1814-1882) who designed the Cymmrodorion medal in 1878. The collection contains a substantial amount of material relating to both Prince Louis Lucien Bonaparte and Joseph Edwards.
Sir Isambard Owen died in Paris in 1929 and was buried at Bangor, north Wales.
From the guide to the Sir Isambard Owen Papers, ca. 1790 -1973, (Bangor University)
