Thomas Isaac Mardy Jones (21 January 1879 – 26 August 1970) was a British politician and miner. The son of a Welsh miner Thomas Isaac, who later died in the mines, Jones rose up the ranks of the Labour Party to become

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 ...

for

Pontypridd () (colloquially: Ponty) is a town and a community in Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. Geography comprises the electoral wards of , Hawthorn, Pontypridd Town, 'Rhondda', Rhydyfelin Central/Ilan ( Rhydfelen), Trallwng (Trallwn) and Treforest (). The ...

in 1922.

Early life

Thomas was educated at Ferndale board school before starting work as a coalminer aged 12. Since both his father and grandfather had died in coal-mining accidents, he was required to earn enough to support a family of six. He nonetheless managed to attend

Ruskin College Ruskin College, originally known as Ruskin Hall, Oxford, is an independent educational institution in Oxford, England. It is not a college of Oxford University. It is named after the essayist, art and social critic John Ruskin (1819–1900) an ...

, Oxford, to study political and economic history for two years. Upon his return to south Wales, he successfully persuaded 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 ...

to offer ten college scholarships to miners.

Career

Mardy Jones began his political career as lecturer in south Wales for the

Independent Labour Party The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British political party of the left, established in 1893 at a conference in Bradford, after local and national dissatisfaction with the Liberals' apparent reluctance to endorse working-class candidates ...

. In 1907, he assumed the position of

checkweighman {{Short description, Occupation within mining, especially coal A checkweighman (occasionally checkmeasurer or checkweigher) is a person who is responsible for weighing coal or another mined substance, and thereby determining the payment due to each ...

, however he suffered an eye accident in 1908. In 1909 he became the South Wales Miners' Federation parliamentary agent. Mardy-Jones defeated Liberal T.A. Lewis in the 1922 by-election to become M.P. for Pontypridd.

Rail Vouchers

In December 1930 Jones gave his wife and 12-year-old daughter a pair of

Commons The commons is the cultural and natural resources accessible to all members of a society, including natural materials such as air, water, and a habitable Earth. These resources are held in common even when owned privately or publicly. Commons ...

rail vouchers, which they were caught using. Jones was taken to court and fined. He was de-selected by his local Labour Party but contested the 1931 General Election as an Independent Labour candidate. He lost his seat, only polling 1,110 votes and finished in third place.

Later life

Between 1928 and 1946, Mardy Jones studied in India, South Africa and the Middle East. He consequently worked in the Middle East as Education and Welfare Officer for the British forces stationed there 1945–46, following a position in the Ministry of Supply as Staffing Officer 1942–44. He later gained popularity as a public lecturer on foreign affairs, particularly concerning India and the Middle East. He became the

National Coal Board The National Coal Board (NCB) was the statutory corporation created to run the nationalised coal mining industry in the United Kingdom. Set up under the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946, it took over the United Kingdom's collieries on "v ...

's official economics lecturer after he was elected a F.R.Econ.S. Mardy Jones wrote a number of volumes on reforming the rating system and local government, including ''Character, coal and corn — the roots of British power (1949)'' and ''India as a future world power (1952).'' Thomas Isaac Mardy Jones died on 26 August 1970, aged 91, at

Harold Wood Hospital Harold Wood Hospital was a hospital in east London, United Kingdom. It was located in Gubbins Lane, Harold Wood in Romford, in the London Borough of Havering. It was managed by Barking, Havering and Redbridge Hospitals NHS Trust. The Havering Cam ...

in Essex.

Personal life

Thomas married Margaret, daughter of John Moredecai, in 1911, and had two daughters. The couple separated in September 1933.

References

The Northern Herald
*''Who was who?''; * ''Dod's Parliamentary Companion''; * ''The Times'', 27 Aug. 1970; * ''The Biographical Index of W.W. Price, Aberdâr'' (at the National Library of Wales and Aberdare Public Library)

External links

* 1879 births 1970 deaths Miners' Federation of Great Britain-sponsored MPs Welsh Labour Party MPs UK MPs 1922–1923 UK MPs 1923–1924 UK MPs 1924–1929 UK MPs 1929–1931 {{Wales-Labour-UK-MP-stub