Sir Owen Thomas, JP, DL (18 December 1858 – 6 March 1923) was a Welsh politician who served as the

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MP) for

Anglesey Anglesey (; cy, (Ynys) Môn ) is an island off the north-west coast of Wales. It forms a principal area known as the Isle of Anglesey, that includes Holy Island across the narrow Cymyran Strait and some islets and skerries. Anglesey island ...

. Born on Anglesey, Thomas raised the Prince of Wales Light Horse regiment to serve in the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sout ...

. He commanded the regiment, and later became the

Brigadier-General Brigadier general or Brigade general is a military rank used in many countries. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries. The rank is usually above a colonel, and below a major general or divisional general. When appointed ...

commanding the North Wales Brigade. He also served as chief officer of the Life-Saving Apparatus at Sea section of the

Board of Trade The Board of Trade is a British government body concerned with commerce and industry, currently within the Department for International Trade. Its full title is The Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council appointed for the consideration of ...

, and in his spare time bred farm stock. Thomas took an interest in politics, and stood unsuccessfully for the Liberal Party in

Oswestry Oswestry ( ; ) is a market town, civil parish and historic railway town in Shropshire, England, close to the Welsh border. It is at the junction of the A5, A483 and A495 roads. The town was the administrative headquarters of the Borough of ...

at the

1895 United Kingdom general election The 1895 United Kingdom general election was held from 13 July to 7 August 1895. William Gladstone had retired as Prime Minister the previous year, and Queen Victoria, disregarding Gladstone's advice to name Lord Spencer as his successor, ap ...

. At the

1918 United Kingdom general election The 1918 United Kingdom general election was called immediately after the Armistice with Germany which ended the First World War, and was held on Saturday, 14 December 1918. The governing coalition, under Prime Minister David Lloyd George, sent ...

, he was elected for Anglesey as an independent labour candidate. He joined the Labour Party group in Parliament, but resigned the party whip in 1920, and was re-elected in 1922 as an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

. He died in 1923, causing the 1923 Anglesey by-election. He was knighted on 21 February 1917.

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* 1858 births 1923 deaths British Army brigadiers Welsh military personnel Welsh Labour Party MPs UK MPs 1918–1922 UK MPs 1922–1923 Independent members of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom Knights Bachelor British Army generals of World War I Liberal Party (UK) parliamentary candidates {{Wales-Labour-UK-MP-stub