John Thomas Tudor Rees (1880 – 27 February 1956) was a Welsh lawyer, judge and

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

politician.

Family and education

Tudor Rees, as he was usually known, was the son of the late J Rees of

Maesteg Maesteg is a town and community in Bridgend County Borough, Wales. Maesteg lies at the northernmost end of the Llynfi Valley, close to the border with Neath Port Talbot. In 2011, Maesteg had a population of 20,612. The English translation of Mae ...

Glamorgan , HQ = Cardiff , Government = Glamorgan County Council (1889–1974) , Origin= , Code = GLA , CodeName = Chapman code , Replace = * West Glamorgan * Mid Glamorgan * South Glamorgan , Motto ...

. He was educated at the University of Wales. In 1918 he married Dorothy Sidebotham of Bowdon,

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

. They had one son and two daughters.

Career

Rees’ chosen profession was the law. He practised as a

solicitor A solicitor is a legal practitioner who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally-defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and ...

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

but was later

called to the Bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

Gray's Inn The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and Wale ...

in 1922.''The Times'' 28 February 1956 In February 1939 he was appointed a

County Court A county court is a court based in or with a jurisdiction covering one or more counties, which are administrative divisions (subnational entities) within a country, not to be confused with the medieval system of ''county courts'' held by the high ...

judge and sat at Whitechapel, Bow and at

Uxbridge Uxbridge () is a suburban town in west London and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Hillingdon. Situated west-northwest of Charing Cross, it is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. Uxbrid ...

and

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings whi ...

County Courts. He also sat as a

Justice of the Peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

and was later Chairman of Surrey Quarter Sessions. He retired from the Bench in 1955.

War service

At outbreak of the First World War, Rees organised a recruiting campaign.''The Times House of Commons 1919''; Politico’s Publishing, 2004 p49 In 1915 he volunteered for the Welsh Regiment eventually achieving the rank of Captain and also served in the

Machine-Gun Corps The Machine Gun Corps (MGC) was a corps of the British Army, formed in October 1915 in response to the need for more effective use of machine guns on the Western Front in the First World War. The Heavy Branch of the MGC was the first to use tank ...

The Church

Rees was a devout

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

who at one time thought about entering the Church. He retained an interest in ecclesiastical matters throughout his life and was a Lay Assessor in the Dioceses of

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. ...

and

Southwark Southwark ( ) is a district of Central London situated on the south bank of the River Thames, forming the north-western part of the wider modern London Borough of Southwark. The district, which is the oldest part of South London, developed ...

. He was the author of a short work on

disestablishment The separation of church and state is a philosophical and jurisprudential concept for defining political distance in the relationship between religious organizations and the state. Conceptually, the term refers to the creation of a secular stat ...

Politics

Rees first entered Parliamentary politics at the 1918 general election when he was the Liberal candidate at

Barnstaple Barnstaple ( or ) is a river-port town in North Devon, England, at the River Taw's lowest crossing point before the Bristol Channel. From the 14th century, it was licensed to export wool and won great wealth. Later it imported Irish wool, bu ...

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

. He declared he was a supporter of the

Lloyd George David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. He was a Liberal Party (United Kingdom), Liberal Party politician from Wales, known for lea ...

coalition A coalition is a group formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political or economical spaces. Formation According to ''A Gui ...

but so was his Unionist opponent, C S Parker He may have received the Coalition Coupon because he is described in one important and reliable record as a Coalition Liberal but

Roy Douglas Richard Roy Douglas (12 December 1907 – 23 March 2015) was an English composer, pianist and arranger. He worked as musical assistant to Ralph Vaughan Williams, William Walton, and Richard Addinsell, made well-known orchestrations of works suc ...

, a historian of the Liberal Party, believes Rees was one of 29 Liberal candidates denied the coupon. Another source indicates that Rees was denied the coupon but immediately accepted the Coalition Whip on getting into Parliament. At the time of the election Rees stated that his political priorities were the housing question and the reform of the jury system. He won the seat with a majority of 602 votes. Rees was unable to hold his seat at Barnstaple at the 1922 general election losing narrowly by just 174 votes in a straight fight with the Conservative candidate

Basil Peto Sir Basil Edward Peto, 1st Baronet (13 August 1862 – 28 January 1945) was a British businessman and Unionist politician. Education and early life Born at Westminster, Peto was the seventh son of Sir Morton Peto, 1st Baronet. He entered H ...

. However, in

1923 Events January–February * January 9 – Lithuania begins the Klaipėda Revolt to annex the Klaipėda Region (Memel Territory). * January 11 – Despite strong British protests, troops from France and Belgium occupy the Ruhr area, t ...

when the Liberal Party was united around the question of

Free Trade Free trade is a trade policy that does not restrict imports or exports. It can also be understood as the free market idea applied to international trade. In government, free trade is predominantly advocated by political parties that hold econo ...

he won the seat back from Peto with a majority of 1,266 in a three-cornered contest including a

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

candidate. In

1924 Events January * January 12 – Gopinath Saha shoots Ernest Day, whom he has mistaken for Sir Charles Tegart, the police commissioner of Calcutta, and is arrested soon after. * January 20– 30 – Kuomintang in China hol ...

he lost the seat back to Peto again in a straight fight by 1,195 votes. He did not contest the seat after 1924 or try to get back into the House of Commons for any other constituency. Rees tended to be on the conservative wing of the Liberal Party. Chris Cook describes Rees as a member of a right-wing coterie of Liberal MPs who could usually be found supporting the Conservatives when the party vote was split during the period of the

first Labour government The first MacDonald ministry of the United Kingdom lasted from January to November 1924. The Labour Party, under Ramsay MacDonald, had failed to win the general election of December 1923, with 191 seats, although the combined Opposition tall ...

of 1924.Chris Cook, ''The Age of Alignment: Electoral Politics in Britain, 1922-1929''; Macmillan 1975, pp 236n, 240 & 246n

Other public service

Rees served as Deputy Chairman of the Road and Rail Traffic Appeal Tribunal and was made a Freeman of the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...

in 1921 and of Epsom and Ewell in Surrey in 1954. He was also Deputy Lieutenant of Surrey.

Death

His Honour Judge Tudor Rees died at his home in Tadworth, Surrey, aged 75 on 27 February 1956.

Publications

* ''Our Jury System'' – publisher and date of publication not known * ''Welsh Disestablishment, Objections Answered''; Hodder & Stoughton 1912 * ''Reserved Judgment: Some Reflections and Recollections'', Muller, 1956 * ''Divorce Handbook'', Butterworth's 1963 * ''The Criminal Justice Act, 1948: an explanatory handbook for magistrates, practitioners and probation officers'', Butterworth's 1949 (with Ernest Graham) * ''Inquiry into the Compulsory Proposed Amalgamation of the County Police Forces of Leicestershire and Rutland'', Home Office publications, 1950 * ''They Stand Apart: A critical survey of the problems of homosexuality'' (with H V Usill eds.) William Heinemann: London, 1955

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rees, Tudor 1880 births 1956 deaths Members of Gray's Inn Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1918–1922 UK MPs 1923–1924 20th-century English judges Welsh Anglicans Alumni of the University of Wales 20th-century Welsh lawyers English justices of the peace Welsh solicitors Deputy Lieutenants of Surrey Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Barnstaple County Court judges (England and Wales)