Thomas William Jones, Lord Maelor (10 February 1898 – 18 November 1984) was a British Labour politician.

Born into a mining family in Ponciau, Wrexham, Wales, he was educated at Ponciau School before becoming a coal miner at the nearby Bersham Colliery. He later attended Normal College Bangor, Gwynedd and qualified as a teacher. During World War I he was a conscientious objector, but was granted recognition only to serve in the army as a non-combatant. He received a six-month prison sentence by court-martial for refusing to obey orders, on grounds of conscience, which he served at Wormwood Scrubs prison in London; under the Home Office Scheme he was transferred to Knutsford Work Centre, and then Princetown Work Centre in the former Dartmoor prison in Devon.[1]

Jones firstly stood as a Labour Parliamentary candidate in 1935, but was unsuccessful. However, in the 1951 general election he was elected as Member of Parliament for Merionethshire Westminster constituency, a position he held until 1966. On 13 June 1966 he was given a life peerage as Baron Maelor, of Rhosllannerchrugog in the County of Denbighshire.[2]

He was a poet and a member of the Gorsedd of Bards at the National Eisteddfod of Wales and served as President of the International Eisteddfod at Llangollen. Lord Maelor, a lifelong heavy smoker, died in an overnight fire at his home in Ponciau which was thought to have been started by a smouldering cigarette.[1]

His brother, Idwal, was Member of Parliament (Labour) for Wrexham from 1955 to 1970.

References

  1. 1 2 John Graham Jones. "Jones, Thomas William ('Tom'), Baron Maelor of Rhos (1898-1984), Labour politician". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 15 February 2021.
  2. ↑ "No. 44020". The London Gazette. 14 June 1966. p. 6797.
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