Tuesday, 2 May 2017
1545 Llewelyn Williams
Constituency : Carmarthen Boroughs 1906-18
Llewelyn took over from Alfred Davies at Carmarthen. The local Liberals were dissatisfied with Davies and deselected him in Llewelyn's favour.
Llewelyn came from a prosperous Congregationalist family. He was educated at Llandovery College and Oxford. He became politically involved in the late 1880s and was prominent in the Cymru Fydd movement , being appointed its South Wales organiser by Lloyd George. He accompanied the latter on a tour of Canada in 1899. after a short stint as a teacher, he became a journalist on Liberal supporting newspapers in South Wales and gave evidence to the Welsh Land Commission in 1894. In 1895 he became sub-editor of tthe London Star and tried to secure nomination in a number of Welsh constituencies. Two years later he switched to law and became a barrister. He was a strong supporter of Welsh Disestablishment and an opponent of the Boer War . He supported tenant purchase over land courts and criticised the University of Wales as too elitist.
Llewelyn was a radical but strongly opposed to socialism.
Llewelyn's maiden speech was in favour of Free Trade.
Llewelyn had to re-win his seat in 1912 when he was appointed Recorder of Swansea.
In 1914 Llewelyn thanked the Irish party for helping them get Welsh disestablishment through.
Llewelyn reluctantly supported the decision to go to war in 1914 but was fiercely opposed to conscription in 1916 which put him at odds with his former ally Lloyd George.
Llewelyn's seat was abolished by boundary changes in 1918 and he did not stand in the election.
By 1921 Llewelyn was so incensed by Lloyd George's government that he decided to stand in the Cardiganshire by-election. Lloyd George had persuaded the long-serving incumbent Matthew Vaughan-Davies to take a peerage and create an opportunity for his private secretary Ernest Evans. Llewelyn standing as an anti-Calition Liberal, with the backing of the local party after a fraught selection process, made the contest something of a referendum on the Prime Minister. Llewelyn called him a "dictator" and "little devil who plagues us so ". Evans saw him off fairly comfortably with Tory support but the contest caused lasting bitterness and division within the Liberals in one of their safest seats. He described himself as an "old fashioned Gldstonian Liberal" who had rejected overtures from Labour to join them.
Llewelyn wrote a number of minor works in Welsh.
After the by-election, Llewelyn made some attempt at reconciliation with Lloyd George. He died in 1922 aged 55.
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