MATHIAS, RONALD CAVILL (1912 - 1968), trade union leader

Born 21 September 1912 at Pontarddulais, Glamorganshire. He was educated at Gowerton Grammar School. From 1924 until 1945 he worked as a clerk for the Richard Thomas Co. (later Richard Thomas and Baldwins, Ltd.), iron and steel manufacturers in south Wales. In 1945 Mathias was appointed Merthyr and district organiser for the Transport and General Workers' Union. He became Cardiff district organiser, 1949-53, and South Wales Regional Secretary from 1953 until his retirement in 1967. In the same year he was appointed a full-time member of the National Board for Prices and Incomes. He held a number of public offices, among them Vice-Chairman of the Welsh Economic Council, secretary of the South Wales T.U.C. Advisory Committee, treasurer of the Welsh Council of Labour, and governor of the Welsh College for Advanced Technology, to name but a few. He became chairman of the Labour Party Wales in 1965. Mathias published a number of articles in journals, and he was a popular lecturer on economic and industrial matters. He received the M.B.E., in 1938 and the O.B.E. in 1967. He married in 1938 Annie Ceridwen Hall; they had one daughter. He died 15 April 1968 at the beginning of a Mediterranean cruise and was buried at sea.

Author

• Dr John Graham Jones

Sources

• Who was who?
• The Times,
• Western Mail and the The Liverpool Daily Post, 18 April 1968
• The Biographical Index of W. W. Price, Aberdâr

Additional Links

• Wikidata: Q20738159

Published date: 2001

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