File NLW ex 2873. - Honouring T. H. Parry-Willliams

James Griffiths (1890-1975), trade union leader and MP, became the first Secretary of State for Wales. He was born in Betws, Carmarthenshire, on 19 September 1890, the youngest of ten children who also included the poet David Rees Griffiths (Amanwy, 1882-1953). Educated at Betws Board School, he left at the age of 13 to work at Ammanford No. 1 colliery (Gwaith Isa'r Betws), where he eventually became Lodge Secretary. He continued his education by attending night school. At work he became involved with the socialist movement, and helped establish a branch of the Independent Labour Party in Ammanford in 1908, soon becoming its secretary. He was also the secretary of the newly formed Ammanford Trades Council, 1916-1919. As a pacifist, he opposed World War One, and while campaigning on this issue, he met Winifred Rutley, who became his wife in 1918. He won a scholarship to the Central Labour College, London, 1919-1921. On returning home he worked as Llanelli Labour Party agent, 1922-1925, an agent for the Anthracite Miners' Association, 1925-1936, and President of the South Wales Miners' Federation ('the Fed'), 1934-1936. In 1936, he was elected Labour MP for Llanelli, joining the National Executive in 1939. Following World War Two he was made Minister for National Insurance by Attlee, 1945-1950. In this capacity he introduced Family Allowances, a new Industrial Injuries Act, and the National Insurance Act 1948. He was also Chairman of the Labour Party, 1948-1949. He became Secretary of State for the Colonies in 1950. Within two years however the Labour Party was out of office. During the long period in opposition he was deputy leader of the Labour Party, 1955-1959, and spokesman on Welsh affairs. Having campaigned for a Secretary of State for Wales since the 1930s, Harold Wilson appointed him the first Secretary of State for Wales following Labour's 1964 General Election victory. He held the post until 1966. He published an autobiography, Pages From Memory (London: Dent, 1969), and retired from Parliament in 1970. He had two sons and two daughters. He died in Teddington, Richmond upon Thames, London, on 7 August 1975, aged 84, and was buried at the Christian Temple in Ammanford. He corresponded with Mary Silyn Roberts (née Parry), who was involved with Coleg Harlech in its early days.

Thomas Iorwerth Ellis (1899-1970), was an academic, teacher and author. He was born in London on 19 December 1899. His father, Thomas Edward Ellis, MP (1859-1899) had died over eight months earlier. His mother, Annie Jane Ellis, née Davies (1873-1942), of Cwrt-mawr, Llangeitho, Cardiganshire, was a descendant of the Davies family of Aberystwyth and Cwrtmawr and the Charles family of Carmarthen. She later married the Rev. Peter Hughes Griffiths (1871-1937).
Ellis was educated at Aberystwyth Grammar School, Westminster School, University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, and Jesus College, Oxford. He was a classics master at Cardiff High School for Boys, 1924-1928, a lecturer at University College, Swansea, 1928-1930, headmaster of Rhyl County School, 1930-1940, and a lecturer in classics at Lampeter, 1940-1941, and Aberystwyth, 1941-1946. He was actively involved with the National Library of Wales and the University of Wales and served as Warden of the Guild of Graduates, 1943-1947. He received an honorary doctorate in 1967, and the OBE in 1968. T. I. Ellis was a founder of Undeb Cymru Fydd, an organization dedicated to preserving Welsh language and culture, and served as its secretary, 1941-1967. He broadcast regularly in both English and Welsh, notably on BBC Radio's Round Britain Quiz. Previously a Calvinistic Methodist, he was confirmed at St Asaph in November 1936, and became a lay reader in the Church in Wales in 1937. He became a member of both the Governing Body and the Representative Body of the Church in Wales.
Ellis edited three volumes of The Letters of T. C. Edwards (Aberystwyth, 1952-1953) and wrote The Development of Higher Education in Wales (Wrexham, 1935) and biographies of his father T. E. Ellis (2 volumes, Liverpool, 1944, 1948), his uncle J. H. Davies (Liverpool, 1963) and Sir Ellis Jones Ellis-Griffith (Llandybïe, 1969). From 1921 he travelled regularly throughout Wales in support of the Welsh Schoolboys' Camp Movement; these journeys became the genesis of his Crwydro series of books (Llandybïe, 1952-1971).
T. I .Ellis married Mary Gwendoline Headley (Mari Ellis) in April 1949 and they had two children, Marged (1950- ) and Rolant (1953- ). He died at his Aberystwyth home on 20 April 1970.