Constituency : Cardiganshire 1945-66
Roderic took over from Owen Evans at Cardiganshire with an easy win over Labour. He is the first of our MPs to survive into this century.
Roderic was a magistrate's son . He was educated at Cardigan County School and Cambridge and became a barrister. He was Recorder of Merthyr Tydfil and Carmarthen. He served in Worl War Two as a private before joining the judge advocate general's office.
Roderic had a reputation for being verbose in the Commons although he was often absent on judicial business. He supported Welsh devolution.
In 1950 Roderic won with a barely reduced majority in a three cornered contest. For the next decade the Tories left him unmolested to easily see off Labour ( and in 1959 Plaid Cymru ). Mindful of this, Roderic supported Eden over Suez which brought him into conflict with Jo Grimond who had defeated him for the party leadership in 1955. Conversely,he was also against nuclear weapons
Roderic came under pressure in 1964 when the Tories put up a candidate allowing Labour to eat into his majority. He became Deputy Speaker in 1965 which helped Harold Wilson preserve his majority. One of his main motives for agreeing to this was that Grimond opposed the idea.
Roderic was narrowly defeated by Labour in 1966. George Brown sent him to Aden to investigate army interrogation methods. He became National Insurance Commissioner for Wales and later chaired a government committee on road signs in Wales.
He died in 2001 aged 87.
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