The Right Honourable
Sir Ellis Ellis-Griffith
Bt KC
Member of Parliament
for Carmarthen
In office
6 December 1923 – 19 July 1924
Preceded byJohn Hinds
Succeeded byAlfred Mond
Member of Parliament
for Anglesey
In office
13 July 1895 – 14 December 1918
Preceded byThomas Lewis
Succeeded byOwen Thomas
Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department
In office
February 1912 – February 1915
Preceded byCharles Masterman
Succeeded byCecil Harmsworth
Personal details
Born(1860-05-23)23 May 1860
Birmingham, Warwickshire
Died30 November 1926(1926-11-30) (aged 66)
Metropole Hotel, Swansea, Wales
NationalityBritish
Political partyLiberal
Alma materUniversity College, Aberystwyth, University of London, Downing College, Cambridge

Sir Ellis Jones Ellis-Griffith, 1st Baronet, PC, KC (23 May 1860 – 30 November 1926) was a British barrister and radical Liberal politician.[1] He was born Ellis Jones Griffith.

Family and education

Griffith was the only child of Thomas Morris Griffith (1827-1901), a master builder, and his wife Jane (née Jones) (1823-1881). Both his parents were Welsh, but had been living in Birmingham and the time of his birth, before moving to Brynsiencyn when Griffith was a child.

He was initially educated at the Holt Academy, and passed both the Cambridge & Oxford local examinations in 1873.[2] The following year he passed a scholarship examination for the University College, Aberystwyth, where he began studying in 1876. He took an arts degree at the University of London in 1879, graduating with double honours in English and Philosophy, before moving to Downing College, Cambridge, in 1880, where he read law and was President of the Cambridge Union.[3]

Ellis-Griffith married Mary (1862-1941), daughter of Robert Owen, in 1892. They had two sons and one daughter. The couple's only surviving son, Ellis succeeded in the baronetcy after his father's death, but died without issue in 1934.

Griffith was called to the Bar, Middle Temple, in 1887 and worked on the North Wales and Chester Circuit. Among his most notable cases was his defence of Major Spilsbury in the Gibraltar Tourmaline smuggling case in 1898.[4] He was Recorder of Birkenhead from 1907 to 1912 and was appointed a King's Counsel in 1910.

Political career

Griffith initially stood unsuccessfully for West Toxteth in 1892 but in 1895 was successfully returned to Parliament for Anglesey. He was returned unopposed in 1900.

Upon his appointment as Recorder of Birkenhead in 1907 he was required to re-submit himself to his electorate at Anglesey and was returned unopposed. Whilst an MP he voted in favour of the 1908 Women's Enfranchisement Bill.[5] He served in the Liberal administration of H. H. Asquith as Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department from 1912 to 1915, in which position he played an important role in steering the Welsh Disestablishment Bill through the House of Commons, and was sworn of the Privy Council in 1914. In 1918 he was created a baronet, of Llanidan in the County of Anglesey[6] and changed his surname to Ellis-Griffith.[7]

He was narrowly defeated at Anglesey in the 1918 general election by the Labour candidate Owen Thomas. He then unsuccessfully contested the University of Wales constituency in 1922, before returning to the House of Commons in 1923, when he was elected for Carmarthen, but he resigned the seat the following year, citing personal unfulfillment in his parliamentary career.[8]

Personal life & death

In November 1926, Ellis-Griffith (who had previously suffered small bouts of ill health) was in Swansea, as defence in a manslaughter case at the assizes court. It was noted during the day that Griffith appeared unwell, and after retiring to his room at the Metropole Hotel that evening, he was found by two colleagues, in great pain, on the floor. Despite receiving medical treatment, he died at the scene, aged 66.[9] His wife, Jane, was in the Italian Riviera at the time of his death, and was brought home shortly afterwards. The cause of death was later ruled as apoplexy.[10] He was buried at St Nidan's Church, Llanidan on the 4 December.

Ellis Griffith c.1895

Election results

General election 1895: Anglesey
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Ellis Griffith 4,224 56.9
Conservative J R Roberts 3,197 43.1
Majority 1,027 13.8
Turnout 74.3
Liberal hold Swing

He was returned unopposed in 1900.

General election 1906: Anglesey Electorate 10,001
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Ellis Griffith 5,356 67.0 n/a
Conservative C F Priestley 2,638 33.0 n/a
Majority 2,718 34.0 n/a
Turnout 79.9 n/a
Liberal hold Swing n/a
January 1910 United Kingdom general election Electorate
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Ellis Griffith 5,888 70.7
Conservative Richard Owen Roberts 2,436 29.3
Majority 3,452 41.4
Turnout 80.5
Liberal hold Swing
General election 1918: Anglesey Electorate
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Owen Thomas 9,038 50.4
National Liberal Ellis Ellis-Griffith 8.898 49.6
Majority 140 0.8
Turnout 69.4
Labour gain from Liberal Swing
General election 1922: University of Wales Electorate 1,441
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
National Liberal Thomas Arthur Lewis 487 39.5 - 41.3
Liberal Ellis Ellis-Griffith 451 35.9 N/A
Labour Olive Wheeler 309 24.8 +5.6
Majority 46 3.6 -58.0
Turnout 1,247 87.2 +1.4
National Liberal hold Swing N/A
General election 1923
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Ellis Ellis-Griffith 12,988
Unionist Alfred Stephens 8,677
Labour R. Williams 7,132
Majority 4,311
Turnout
Liberal hold Swing

References

  1. ↑ Tanner, Duncan (13 February 2003). Political Change and the Labour Party 1900-1918. ISBN 9780521530538.
  2. ↑ "Brynsiencyn, Anglesey". Caernarvon & Denbigh Herald. 28 February 1874. p. 8. Retrieved 27 December 2021.
  3. ↑ "Griffith (post Ellis-Griffith), Ellis Jones (GRFT880EJ)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  4. ↑ "Tourmaline Case, 1898 - Macquarie Law School". www.law.mq.edu.au. Retrieved 27 December 2021.
  5. ↑ "WOMEN'S ENFRANCHISEMENT BILL". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 28 February 1908.
  6. ↑ "No. 30557". The London Gazette. 5 March 1918. p. 2782.
  7. ↑ "No. 30565". The London Gazette. 8 March 1918. p. 3043.
  8. ↑ "Welsh Members and Their Troubles". The Western Mail. 18 July 1924. p. 6. Retrieved 27 December 2021.
  9. ↑ "SIR ELLIS GRIFFITH. DEATH OF AN EMINENT WELSH K.C." Western Mail. 1 December 1926. p. 7. Retrieved 27 December 2021.
  10. ↑ "The public funeral of Sir Ellis Griffith". Aberdeen Press and Journal. 2 December 1926. p. 4. Retrieved 27 December 2021.
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