Robert Thomas Ellis (15 March 1924 – 14 April 2010) was a

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...

politician who was elected several times as a Labour Party

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 ...

, and later joined the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties For ...

(SDP).

Early life

Ellis was born in Pant,

Rhosllannerchrugog RhosllanerchrugogDavies, Jenkins and Baines (eds) ''The Welsh Academy Encyclopedia of Wales'', 2008, p.752 (also spelled Rhosllannerchrugog, or simply Rhos) is a village and community in Wrexham County Borough, Wales. It lies within the histor ...

Denbighshire Denbighshire ( ; cy, Sir Ddinbych; ) is a county in the north-east of Wales. Its borders differ from the historic county of the same name. This part of Wales contains the country's oldest known evidence of habitation – Pontnewydd (Bontnewy ...

and was educated at

Ruabon Grammar School Ruabon Grammar School was situated in Ruabon, Denbighshire in north-east Wales. It provided a grammar school education to boys in the parishes of Ruabon and Erbistock. Ruabon Grammar School for Boys became a Denbighshire County secondary school ...

. He entered the

mining industry Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...

, and in 1957 was appointed manager of the nearby

Bersham Colliery Bersham Colliery was a large coal mine located near Rhostyllen in Wrexham County Borough, Wales. The mine accessed seams found in the Denbighshire Coalfield. History The Wrexham area in the 19th Century was highly industrialised. At the peak t ...

.Review of ''After the Dust Has Settled: The Autobiography of Tom Ellis''
(Gwales.com) He took further studies at the

University of Wales The University of Wales (Welsh language, Welsh: ''Prifysgol Cymru'') is a confederal university based in Cardiff, Wales. Founded by royal charter in 1893 as a federal university with three constituent colleges – Aberystwyth, Bangor and Cardiff � ...

and the

University of Nottingham The University of Nottingham is a public university, public research university in Nottingham, United Kingdom. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. The University of Nottingham belongs t ...

. He was a president of

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; cy, Wrecsam; ) is a city and the administrative centre of Wrexham County Borough in Wales. It is located between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley, near the border with Cheshire in England. Historically in the count ...

Fabian Society The Fabian Society is a British socialist organisation whose purpose is to advance the principles of social democracy and democratic socialism via gradualist and reformist effort in democracies, rather than by revolutionary overthrow. The Fa ...

Parliamentary career

Ellis joined the Labour Party in 1943.Tom Ellis, Rosaleen Hughes and

Phillip Whitehead Phillip Whitehead (30 May 1937 – 31 December 2005) was a British Labour politician, television producer and writer. Early life Born in Matlock Bath, Derbyshire, he was adopted by a local family in Rowsley, and attended Lady Manners School ...

''Electoral Reform''
Fabian Tract 483 (London: Fabian Society, 1982), preface. He first stood for Parliament without success in Flint West in 1966. Elected at the 1970 general election as

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 ...

MP for

, he was re-elected in the

February 1974 The following events occurred in February 1974: February 1, 1974 (Friday) *Joelma fire, A fire killed 177 people and injured 293 others in the 23-story Joelma Building at São Paulo in Brazil. Another 11 later died of their injuries. The bl ...

, October 1974, and May 1979 elections. He also served as an indirectly elected

Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

from 1975 to 1979. Ellis had grown increasingly disaffected with the leftward direction of the Labour Party by the beginning of the 1980s. He was one of the core handful of Jenkinsite Labour MPs who were prepared to leave the Labour Party without the Gang of Three of

David Owen David Anthony Llewellyn Owen, Baron Owen, (born 2 July 1938) is a British politician and physician who served as Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs as a Labour Party (UK), Labour Party MP under James Callaghan from 1977 t ...

, Bill Rodgers, and

Shirley Williams Shirley Vivian Teresa Brittain Williams, Baroness Williams of Crosby, (' Catlin; 27 July 1930 – 12 April 2021) was a British politician and academic. Originally a Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP), she served in the Labour cabinet from ...

. In fact, he had even gone so far as seriously to contemplate joining the Liberals. Ellis' disenchantment with the Labour Party was so great that he probably voted for

Michael Foot Michael Mackintosh Foot (23 July 19133 March 2010) was a British Labour Party politician who served as Labour Leader from 1980 to 1983. Foot began his career as a journalist on ''Tribune'' and the ''Evening Standard''. He co-wrote the 1940 p ...

over

Denis Healey Denis Winston Healey, Baron Healey, (30 August 1917 – 3 October 2015) was a British Labour Party (UK), Labour politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1974 to 1979 and as Secretary of State for Defence from 1964 to 1970; he ...

in Labour's 1980 leadership election in order to accelerate the disintegration of the Labour Party. In 1981, Ellis became one of the founding members of the SDP. Ellis was one of three Welsh MPs to join the new party (the others were Jeffrey Thomas and

Ednyfed Hudson Davies Gwilym Ednyfed Hudson-Davies (4 December 1929 – 11 January 2018), known as Ednyfed Hudson Davies, was a Welsh politician and Member of Parliament (MP). He was born in Llanelli, the son of Ebenezer Curig Davies and his wife Enid (née Hughes). Th ...

) and he was elected to serve as the President of Welsh Social Democrats. As a result of boundary changes, Ellis did not contest Wrexham in 1983 election, instead he stood in the new constituency of Clwyd South West which incorporated much of his old constituency. Ellis finished second to the

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

candidate Robert Harvey by 1,551 votes in a competitive three-way race.

Later life

At the 1987 general election, Ellis stood again in Clwyd South West, finishing a respectable third. After the merger of the SDP and the Liberals, he stood for the then

Social and Liberal Democrats The Liberal Democrats (commonly referred to as the Lib Dems) are a liberal political party in the United Kingdom. Since the 1992 general election, with the exception of the 2015 general election, they have been the third-largest UK political ...

at the

1989 Pontypridd by-election The 1989 Pontypridd by-election was a by-election held in Wales on 23 February 1989 for the House of Commons constituency of Pontypridd in Mid Glamorgan. The by-election was caused by the death of the constituency's Labour Party Member of Parl ...

, finishing a weak fourth behind the victor

Kim Howells Kim Scott Howells (born 27 November 1946) is a Welsh people, Welsh Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Pontypridd (UK Parliament constituency), Pontypridd from 1989 Pontypridd by-election, 1989 to ...

Publications

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Notes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ellis, Tom 1924 births 2010 deaths Welsh Labour Party MPs Liberal Democrats (UK) parliamentary candidates Social Democratic Party (UK) MPs for Welsh constituencies UK MPs 1970–1974 UK MPs 1974 UK MPs 1974–1979 UK MPs 1979–1983 Alumni of the University of Nottingham Alumni of the University of Wales People from Rhosllanerchrugog Politics of Wrexham Labour Party (UK) MEPs MEPs for the United Kingdom 1973–1979 People educated at Ruabon Grammar School