Ivor Owen Thomas

Ivor Owen Thomas (5 December 1898 – 11 January 1982)[1] was a British trade unionist and Labour Party politician.

Thomas was the son of Benjamin L. Thomas from Briton Ferry in South Wales.[2] He was educated at Vernon Place School in Briton Ferry. He was employed as a barber's lather boy,[3] and then at Gwalia Tinplate Works from 1912 to 1918, when he was called up for WW1 military service. As a conscientious objector, he refused, and spent a year in prison.[4] Thomas was an engine cleaner on the Great Western Railway from 1919 to 1923.[2] He won a scholarship to the Central Labour College in London, where he studied from 1923 to 1925, then worked at the head office of the National Union of Railwaymen until 1945.[3]

Thomas was a Labour Party councillor on Battersea Metropolitan Borough Council from 1928[3] or 1929[2] to 1945.[2] At the 1945 general election he was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for The Wrekin in Shropshire.[5][6] He was re-elected in 1950[7] and 1951,[8] holding the seat until defeat, by 478 votes, at the 1955 general election in favour of the Conservative William Yates.[3]

He then returned to work at the NUR headquarters until 1958, and worked for British Rail at London Waterloo station from 1960 to 1965.

There is a road named after him in the village of St Georges, situated in Telford (formerly the Wrekin constituency). (Ivor Thomas Road, St George's, Telford, TF2 9EZ, q.v., Google Maps)