Thomas Jones, Baron Maelor

Thomas William "Tom" Jones, Baron Maelor ( born February 10, 1898 in Ponciau, † November 18, 1984 ) was a Welsh Labour Party politician.

Political career

Thomas Jones was born into a mining family in Wales. He attended the local primary school and was 14 years old miner in the nearby coal mine Bersham. During the First World War, he refused to do military service, but got the assurance of being able to serve in the army as non-combatant. But because he did not obey a command of conscience, he was convicted in 1917 by a military court for a six-month prison sentence. The sentence he was serving in London in Wormwood Scrubs Prison. Later he was transferred to the labor camp of Princetown, which was located in the former prison of Dartmoor in Devon. After the war he attended the Normal College in Bangor, Gwynedd, and qualified as a teacher. From 1922 to 1940 he was director of a school; In 1937 he was justice of the peace for Denbighshire. From 1940 to 1946 he worked for the British Ministry of Social Affairs. In 1946 he was working for the North Wales Power and Electric Co. and was responsible for the social needs of employees. He was also engaged in the Welsh union North Wales Labour Federation.

1935 Jones ran for the first time for the Labour Party, but was not elected. In 1951, he managed to get elected for the constituency of Meirionnydd in the British House of Commons. He remained a Member of Parliament until 1966; his brother James Idwal Jones was a member of parliament from 1955 to 1970. His main political concern was the transfer of the Bala Lake in the public domain as well as the construction of a nuclear reactor at Trawsfynydd and a pumped storage plant in Blaenau Ffestiniog, both places with high unemployment.

In June 1966 he was appointed with the title of Baron Maelor, of Rhosllannerchrugog in the County of Denbighshire for Life Peer. In the House of Lords, he was still very involved with Welsh issues; he campaigned against the abolition of the Welsh Sunday, after it was banned there on Sundays to open pubs and hold sporting events.

At the celebration for the investiture of Prince Charles Prince of Wales, Lord Maelor was one of the cushions for the crown and the ring were the Queen presented during the ceremony. In 1981, he was celebrated as a singing Baron after he had submitted the first person in the House of Lords a song. He also wrote poetry and was a member of the Gorsedd ( Bard Association ) at the Eisteddfod music festival and president of the International Eisteddfod in Llangollen. The Lord described as humorous was known for entertaining anecdotes to tell in English as well as Welsh, and gladly boasted to have sat in the two worst prisons in Britain.

Lord Maelor, who had been all his life a smoker, died one night at his home in Ponciau by fire; It was assumed that this was caused by a smoldering cigarette.

Writings

• Y Senedd. Y Senedd: hanes datblygiad a gwaith y Senedd yn San Steffan ynghyd A'i defodau a'i thraddodiadau. ( Reports from the Parliament) in 1969.
• Fel Hyn y bu. ( Memories ) 1970.
• Thomas Jefferson: trydydd Arlywydd America. In 1980.