Sir Edward John Williams (1 July 1890 – 16 May 1963) was a British Labour Party politician and diplomat. Williams was born in 1890 in Victoria,

Ebbw Vale Ebbw Vale (; cy, Glynebwy) is a town at the head of the valley formed by the Ebbw Fawr tributary of the Ebbw River in Wales. It is the largest town and the administrative centre of Blaenau Gwent county borough. The Ebbw Vale and Brynmawr con ...

Monmouthshire Monmouthshire ( cy, Sir Fynwy) is a county in the south-east of Wales. The name derives from the historic county of the same name; the modern county covers the eastern three-fifths of the historic county. The largest town is Abergavenny, with ...

, to Emanuel Williams and his wife Ada (née James). After attending school in Victoria and Hopkinstown, he started working at Waunllwyd colliery, Ebbw Vale, at the age of 12. Keen to educate himself, he rose to become secretary to a colliery company and in 1913 entered the Labour College in London as a student.'Sir Edward Williams: A Long Career of Public Service', ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'', 18 May 1963, p. 10. After three years, Williams was appointed a provincial lecturer for the college, though the

Great War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

disrupted the college and left him unemployed. Forced to return to mining in 1917, he became checkweigher and in 1919 miners' agent to the Garw district of the

South Wales Miners' Federation The South Wales Miners' Federation (SWMF), nicknamed "The Fed", was a trade union for coal miners in South Wales. It survives as the South Wales Area of the National Union of Mineworkers. Forerunners The Amalgamated Association of Miners (AA ...

. He was elected as the MP for Ogmore at a by-election in May 1931, and represented the constituency until 1946. From 1946 to 1952 he served as High Commissioner to Australia.

References

1890 births 1963 deaths Welsh Labour Party MPs UK MPs 1929–1931 UK MPs 1931–1935 UK MPs 1935–1945 High Commissioners of the United Kingdom to Australia Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Miners' Federation of Great Britain-sponsored MPs National Union of Mineworkers-sponsored MPs Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George Ministers in the Attlee governments, 1945–1951 Members of Glamorgan County Council People from Ebbw Vale Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Monmouthshire {{Wales-Labour-UK-MP-stub