David Rees-Williams, 1st Baron Ogmore

David Rees Rees-Williams, 1st Baron Ogmore, PC, TD (22 November 1903 – 30 August 1976) was a British politician.

The Right Honourable
The Lord Ogmore
PC
Member of Parliament for Croydon South
In office
5 July 1945 – 3 February 1950
Preceded byHerbert Williams
Succeeded byConstituency abolished
Personal details
Born
David Rees Rees-Williams

(1903-11-22)22 November 1903
Bridgend, Wales
Died30 August 1976(1976-08-30) (aged 72)
Political partyLabour Party (until 1959)
Liberal Party (1959–1976)
SpouseConstance Wills
Children3

Life and career

Rees-Williams was born in Bridgend, Wales, the son of William Rees Williams,[1] of Garth-celyn, Bridgend, and Jennet, daughter of Morgan David, of Bridgend. William Rees Williams was a veterinary surgeon (a Fellow of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons), and had served as a Captain in the Royal Army Veterinary Corps.[2][3] He qualified as a solicitor in 1929. Commissioned into the 6th (Territorial Army) Battalion, Welch Regiment, he was promoted Captain in 1936 and Major in 1938, by which time his battalion had become a searchlight unit. He transferred to the Royal Artillery in 1940, when all searchlight units did so, and ended the Second World War as a Lieutenant-Colonel.

Rees-Williams was elected Labour Member of Parliament for Croydon South in 1945, defeating the incumbent MP, Sir Herbert Williams. In the government he was a minister in the Colonial Office, travelling to East Asia to consider the movements towards independence. His seat was redistributed at the end of the Parliament and he narrowly lost the successor seat at the 1950 general election and was raised to the peerage as Baron Ogmore, of Bridgend in the County of Glamorgan, on 10 July 1950.[4] He served as Minister of Civil Aviation in 1951 and was made a Privy Councillor the same year. Lord Ogmore was President of the London Welsh Trust, which ran the London Welsh Centre, Gray's Inn Road, from 1955 until 1959.[5]

Lord Ogmore joined the Liberal Party in 1959 and served as Liberal Party President, 1963–1964.

In 1930, Lord Ogmore married (Alice Alexandra) Constance, daughter of Walter Robert Wills, Lord Mayor of Cardiff from 1945 to 1946.[6] He had three children. His daughter, Elizabeth Rees-Williams, married the actors Richard Harris and Sir Rex Harrison, the businessman Peter Aitken, and more recently Jonathan Aitken, the former Conservative MP. His grandsons are actors Jared Harris and Jamie Harris and director Damian Harris.[7][8]

Honours
Coat of arms of David Rees-Williams, 1st Baron Ogmore
Crest
A tiger’s head couped Proper charged on the neck with three chevronels couped Gules.
Escutcheon
Azure two bars wavy Argent on a chief arched of the second between as many hurts each charged with a quatrefoil Or a hurt thereon a sun in splendour of the third.
Supporters
Dexter a tiger Proper charged on the shoulder with three chevronels couped Gules, sinister a horse Argent.
Motto
Ffyddlon Hyd Angau (Faithful Unto Death) [9]

Foreign honour


References
  1. Per Burke's Peerage 2003 vol. 2 p. 2988, William was son of George Williams and Elvira Rees; David Rees-Williams was the first to use both names as a hyphenated surname.
  2. "WILLIAMS, DAVID REES (Later REES-WILLIAMS, DAVID REES), 1st BARON OGMORE (1903-1976), politician and lawyer | Dictionary of Welsh Biography".
  3. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 107th edition, vol. 2, ed. Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage Ltd, 2003, p. 2988
  4. "No. 38968". The London Gazette. 14 July 1950. p. 3622.
  5. "Our Former Presidents: London Welsh Centre". London Welsh Centre website. London Welsh Centre. 2010. Archived from the original on 20 July 2011. Retrieved 4 February 2011.
  6. Europa Publications Limited (1974). The international who's who. Europa Publications. ISBN 9780900362729. Retrieved 20 May 2015.
  7. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 107th edition, vol. 2, ed. Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage Ltd, 2003, p. 2988
  8. Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 106th edition, ed. Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage Ltd, 1999, vol. 1, p. 231
  9. Debrett's Peerage. 1985.
  10. "Senarai Penuh Penerima Darjah Kebesaran, Bintang dan Pingat Persekutuan Tahun 1959" (PDF).
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