William Richard Williams (1 March 1895 – 11 September 1963) was a British civil servant and politician who made a particular specialism of the

Post Office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...

Post Office career

Born in

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

to a quarryman father, Williams went to elementary schools and then to a County Secondary. He began work in 1912 as a Post Office clerk, living in

Caernarfon Caernarfon (; ) is a royal town, community and port in Gwynedd, Wales, with a population of 9,852 (with Caeathro). It lies along the A487 road, on the eastern shore of the Menai Strait, opposite the Isle of Anglesey. The city of Bangor is ...

, and became active in the Post Office Workers' Union. After rising through the union ranks, he was Assistant Secretary of the Union from 1942.

Heston MP

At the 1945 general election, Williams was sponsored by his union to run as the

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 Heston and Isleworth in west London, which had been newly created in boundary changes. With the election giving Labour a landslide win, he won the seat, but he could not hold on to it at the next election in 1950. Williams established a reputation as a left-winger on some issues (voting against the continuation of

National Service National service is the system of voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939. The l ...

), but supported the Government's decision to ban Communists from work related to national security.

Droylsden

He was then chosen as candidate for

Droylsden Droylsden is a town in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England, east of Manchester city centre and west of Ashton-under-Lyne, with a population at the 2011 Census of 22,689. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, in the ...

in the eastern suburbs of

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, and was elected there in the 1951 general election. This was a much safer seat and Williams gave up his Union post in 1952 to concentrate on his Parliamentary career. Often putting questions about the Post Office and other parts of the Civil Service, he was appointed to the Speaker's Panel of Chairmen for Standing Committees where his chairmanship was much appreciated. His constituency was again subjected to boundary changes in 1955, which Williams did his best to have delayed. Williams eventually followed most of his voters into the new Manchester Openshaw constituency.

Speakership

Williams was lined up to be the Labour nominee for Speaker of the House of Commons after the 1959 general election had Labour won the election, but Labour's defeat put paid to his chances and a Conservative MP was allowed the job without opposition. From 1960, he was given a frontbench responsibility for the Post Office. In 1962, Conservative Prime Minister

Harold Macmillan Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, (10 February 1894 – 29 December 1986) was a British Conservative statesman and politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1957 to 1963. Caricatured as "Supermac", he ...

approached Williams with an offer to become the Deputy Chairman of Ways and Means (second Deputy Speaker). Williams declined, and the offer itself was controversial as many Labour MPs felt that Macmillan should have consulted the Leader of the Labour Party

Hugh Gaitskell Hugh Todd Naylor Gaitskell (9 April 1906 – 18 January 1963) was a British politician who served as Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition from 1955 until his death in 1963. An economics lecturer and wartime civil servant, h ...

rather than make the offer direct to Williams. Williams died the following year at his home in

Banstead Banstead is a town in the borough of Reigate and Banstead in Surrey, England. It is south of Sutton, south-west of Croydon, south-east of Kingston-upon-Thames, and south of Central London. On the North Downs, it is on three of the four main ...

, aged 68.

References

*''Who was Who'' *Obituary, ''The Times'', 12 September 1963

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, William Richard 1895 births 1963 deaths Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1945–1950 UK MPs 1951–1955 UK MPs 1955–1959 UK MPs 1959–1964 Civil servants in the General Post Office Union of Communication Workers-sponsored MPs Welsh trade unionists