David Rees-Williams, 1st Baron Ogmore
The Lord Ogmore | |
|---|---|
| File:Lord Ogmore.jpg Rees-Williams in 1947 | |
| Member of Parliament for Croydon South | |
| In office 5 July 1945 – 3 February 1950 | |
| Preceded by | Herbert Williams |
| Succeeded by | Constituency abolished |
| Personal details | |
| Born | David Rees Rees-Williams 22 November 1903 Bridgend, Wales |
| Died | 30 August 1976 (aged 72) |
| Party | Labour (until 1959) Liberal (1959–1976) |
| Spouse | Constance Wills |
| Children | 3 |
David Rees Rees-Williams, 1st Baron Ogmore, PC, TD (22 November 1903 – 30 August 1976) was a British politician.
Career
[edit | edit source]Rees-Williams was born in Bridgend, Wales, the son of William Rees Williams,[1] of Garth-celyn, Bridgend, and Jennet, daughter of Morgan David, of Bridgend. William Rees Williams was a veterinary surgeon, and had served as a captain in the Royal Army Veterinary Corps.[2][3] He qualified as a solicitor in 1929. Commissioned into the 6th (Territorial Army) Battalion, Welch Regiment, he was promoted Captain in 1936 and Major in 1938, by which time his battalion had become a searchlight unit. He transferred to the Royal Artillery in 1940, when all searchlight units did so, and ended the Second World War as a Lieutenant-Colonel.
Rees-Williams was elected Labour Member of Parliament for Croydon South in 1945, defeating the incumbent MP, Sir Herbert Williams. In the government he was a minister in the Colonial Office, travelling to East Asia to consider the movements towards independence. His seat was redistributed at the end of the Parliament and he narrowly lost the successor seat at the 1950 general election and was raised to the peerage as Baron Ogmore, of Bridgend in the County of Glamorgan, on 10 July 1950.[4] He served as Minister of Civil Aviation in 1951 and was made a Privy Councillor the same year. Lord Ogmore was President of the London Welsh Trust, which ran the London Welsh Centre, Gray's Inn Road, from 1955 until 1959.[5]
Lord Ogmore joined the Liberal Party in 1959 and served as Liberal Party President, 1963–1964.
Personal life
[edit | edit source]In 1930, Lord Ogmore married (Alice Alexandra) Constance, daughter of Walter Robert Wills, Lord Mayor of Cardiff from 1945 to 1946.[6] He had three children. His daughter, Elizabeth Rees-Williams, married the actors Richard Harris and Sir Rex Harrison, the businessman Peter Aitken, and more recently Jonathan Aitken, the former Conservative MP. His grandsons are actors Jared Harris and Jamie Harris and director Damian Harris.[7][8]
Honours
[edit | edit source]| File:Ogmore Achievement.png |
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Foreign honour
[edit | edit source]- File:Flag of Myanmar.svg Myanmar :
- File:Agga Maha Thray Sithu.svg Agga-Maha-Thayay-Sithu of the Order of the Pyidaungsu Sithu Thingaha (1956)
- File:Flag of Malaya (1950–1963).svg Malaya :
- File:MY Darjah Yang Mulia Pangkuan Negara (Defender of the Realm)- PMN.svg Honorary Commander of the Order of the Defender of the Realm (P.M.N. (K)) - Tan Sri (1959)[10]
References
[edit | edit source]- ^ Per Burke's Peerage 2003 vol. 2 p. 2988, William was son of George Williams and Elvira Rees; David Rees-Williams was the first to use both names as a hyphenated surname.
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 107th edition, vol. 2, ed. Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage Ltd, 2003, p. 2988
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- ^ Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 107th edition, vol. 2, ed. Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage Ltd, 2003, p. 2988
- ^ Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 106th edition, ed. Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage Ltd, 1999, vol. 1, p. 231
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
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External links
[edit | edit source]- Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by David Rees-Williams
- Portraits of David Rees-Williams, 1st Baron Ogmore at the National Portrait Gallery, LondonLua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 29: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
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- 1903 births
- 1976 deaths
- 20th-century British lawyers
- British Army personnel of World War II
- Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
- Labour Party (UK) hereditary peers
- Liberal Party (UK) hereditary peers
- Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
- Ministers in the Attlee governments, 1945–1951
- People from Bridgend
- Politics of the London Borough of Croydon
- Presidents of the Liberal Party (UK)
- Royal Artillery officers
- UK MPs 1945–1950
- UK MPs who were granted peerages
- Welch Regiment officers
- Welsh solicitors
- Barons created by George VI