Biography

Photocopied Clipping detailing a short biography Professor John Ll.J. Edwards' life and academic achievements. Clipping makes reference to an obituary in The London Times and includes a quote from that coverage. Item also includes a photograph of Edwards.
"Professor John Ll. J Edwards - In Memoriam", clipping from Nexus Magazine, a Faculty of Law alumni magazine.
Finding aid for the John Ll. J. Edwards research collections on the topic of Law Officers of The British Commonwealth. This guide includes correspondence sent and received by Edwards, interviews with Law officers while overseas, research notes, copies of published and unpublished papers written by Edwards and others, government publications as well as newspaper clippings. The collections are housed at the Centre of Criminology Library.
A FINDING AID TO THE PAPERS OF PROFESSOR EMERITUS JOHN Ll. J. EDWARDS

Born in 1915, Professor John Ll. J. Edwards was destined for a life in the fields of law and criminal justice. His interest in the fields began at an early age when he obtained a bachelor’s degree at the University of Wales and immediately went to pursue a career in law. His pursuit was interrupted by the Second World War where he was enlisted in the British Forces and moved across the globe to West Africa (Sharpe, 1994). Despite this interruption, Professor Edwards was determined to continue what he started and obtained five doctorates and three honorary degrees which led him to a career in teaching in the United Kingdom, first at Cambridge University and then Queen’s University. A job opportunity at Dalhousie University’s Faculty of Law brought Professor Edwards overseas to Canada where he would heavily influence the discipline of Criminology, criminal law, and criminal justice both in educational contexts and in the Canadian and various provincial governments. In 1960, Professor Edwards would relocate from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Toronto, Ontario where his memorandum in favour of a criminology centre would be the paving stone for the creation of a Criminology Centre at the University of Toronto (Doob & Greenspan, 1985, 4). In 1963 Professor Edwards was appointed as director of the Centre of Criminology, the first of its kind in Canada with plans to create a masters teaching program, house an extensive collection of criminal and legal materials, and expand the field through a multi-disciplinary faculty. Much of Professor Edwards’ research in the early years of the Criminology Centre was focused on judiciary powers, and Professor Edwards’ was successful in creating the first study on provincial judges, after conducting the first conference on sentencing (“Toronto Criminology Centre Makes Big Waves…quietly,” 1973). The interdisciplinary environment of the criminology program and faculty would further encourage Professor Edwards’ to pursue a wide variety of research topics. Some of his research notes disclose his interest in the criminal justice system not only in Canada, England and Wales, but also in West Africa, where he had served in the British Forces as a young adult. Professor Edwards encouraged unique ways of approaching criminology but understood that the main obstacle preventing these studies was funding. He continued to persevere in his role as Director where he constantly advocated for greater funding to ensure the success of the study of criminology. In 1972, the Centre of Criminology was offered a fraction of the grant they requested, on the condition that the government would reserve the right to determine whether research findings should be made public or not (Edwards, 1972). Professor Edwards engaged in a lengthy grant dispute, taking his concerns to the media where he stood firm in his belief in complete freedom of publication. An article in the Toronto Star quoted a Metro judge who regarded Professor Edwards as “one of the gutsiest, most intelligent academics in North America” (Edwards, 1972). His genius and intelligence are the very traits that made Professor Edwards a leading scholar in criminal law. In 1984, during the Centre’s 21st anniversary, Professor Edwards was honoured as one of the sixteen Corporate Founding Founders of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award in Canada (Cherry, 1984). His work was not only influential within the University but also heavily informed the criminal justice system and government. Many of his works can be found in the grey literature sections of the Centre for Criminology Library’s archives. John Lleweyln Jones Edwards passed away on September 19, 1994 at the age of 76 (Sharpe, 1994). At the time of his death he was survived by his wife Monica, his sons, Mark and Stephen, his daughter Alex, and his seven grandchildren (Sharpe, 1994). In 1995 Professor Clifford Shearing introduced the newly dedicated section of the “John Edwards Collection’’ at the Centre’s Library and announced the decision to hold regular memorial lectures in Professor Edwards’ honour (Shearing, 1995). The Centre for Criminology & Sociolegal Studies continues to host these lectures and January 2023 marked the twenty-fourth annual lecture of the John Ll. J. Edwards Memorial Lecture series. Professor Edwards’ legacy continues to live on through the success of the Centre for Criminology & Sociolegal Studies, a program that has grown in many ways since its humble beginnings with just thirty masters students.