David Emlyn Thomas (16 September 1892 – 20 June 1954) was a Labour Party

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, ...

in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

. He 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 o ...

for

Aberdare Aberdare ( ; cy, Aberdâr) is a town in the Cynon Valley area of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales, at the confluence of the Rivers Dare (Dâr) and Cynon. Aberdare has a population of 39,550 (mid-2017 estimate). Aberdare is south-west of Merthyr Tyd ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

from 1946 to 1954 and was the last former miner to represent the constituency.

Early life

He was born in Maesteg, the town to which his parents had moved from West

where his father had worked as a gardener in various country mansions. The family returned for a while to Cardigan and

Cilgerran Cilgerran (previously Kilgerran or Cil-Garon) is both a village, a parish, and also a community, situated on the south bank of the River Teifi in Pembrokeshire, Wales. It was formerly an incorporated market town. Among Cilgerran's attractio ...

where Thomas received his early education. He subsequently returned to Maesteg and until 1906 attended school there. To his dismay, his father came home from work one day and announced that he had ‘had a start’ for him at the Oakwood

colliery Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

. His hopes for further education were thus dashed. David Thomas was employed as a clerk at three collieries from 1906 to 1915. For five of these years he worked at Torycoed Colliery,

Llantrisant Llantrisant (; " Parish of the Three Saints") is a town in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, within the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan, Wales, lying on the River Ely and the Afon Clun. The three saints of the town's name are ...

. Anxious to further his education, he attended night classes in typing and shorthand. This training proved invaluable to him when, in later years, he attended meetings 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 ...

(SWMF). Thomas married Bessie, a teacher, in 1923. She died in September 1953.

Early career

In 1919 he was appointed a full-time Federation official at the SWMF office in Maesteg under Vernon Hartshorn, MP and Evan Williams, JP. Thomas joined the Labour Party in 1919 and was secretary of the Labour Party ward committee in Maesteg. When the SWMF office in Maesteg closed in 1934 Thomas was transferred to the Federation Office in Aberdare as Area Secretary and, in addition, fulfilled the duties of the Miners’ Agent,

Noah Ablett Noah Ablett (4 October 1883 – 31 October 1935) was a Welsh trade unionist and political theorist who is most noted for contributing to ' The Miners' Next Step', a Syndicalist treatise which Ablett described as 'scientific trade unionism. Ablett ...

, who was seriously ill. On the death of Ablett, he was elected Miners’ Agent, a role he fulfilled until 1946. He worked tirelessly and efficiently on behalf of the miners, dealing with such matters as compensation cases and the rights of the disabled miners. An active nonconformist, Thomas was an active member and deacon at

Ebenezer, Trecynon Ebenezer, Trecynon was an Independent (Congregationalist) chapel in Ebenezer Street, Trecynon, Aberdare, Wales. It was one of the earliest Independent chapels in the Cynon Valley and remained an active place of worship until 2009. Early history ...

Parliamentary career

In 1946, on the elevation to a peerage of

George Hall George Hall may refer to: People The arts * George Hall (actor) (1916–2002), Canadian-American actor * George Hall (musician) (c. 1893 – c. 1989), American bandleader * George Hall (cartoonist) (born 1960), Australian comic book writer and ...

, Thomas was chosen by the Aberdare Divisional Socialist Party to contest the vacant parliamentary seat. His maiden speech made in 1947 reflected his concern for the welfare of the miners; he spoke of the inadequate compensation for disabled miners and also the lack of other employment for those suspended from the industry due to injury. He pushed for the construction of factories in the mining areas. When elected MP in 1946, his majority was 17,125; this increased to 27,892 in 1950 and to 27,973 in 1951. He was a member of the Public Accounts Committee of the House of Commons and in 1949-50 was the leader of the Welsh Parliamentary Labour Group in the House.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, David People from Maesteg 1892 births 1954 deaths National Union of Mineworkers-sponsored MPs Welsh Labour Party MPs UK MPs 1945–1950 UK MPs 1950–1951 UK MPs 1951–1955