DAGGAR, GEORGE (1879 - 1950), trade unionist and Member of Parliament

Born 6 November 1879 in Cwmbran, Monmouthshire, son of Jesse Daggar, mine worker, and his wife Elizabeth. The family moved to Abertillery and he was educated at the British School there. He started work when he was 12 in the Arael Griffin pit, Six Bells, and threw himself into trade union work, being elected in his 20s vice-chairman of Number 5 Lodge, Arael Griffin. In 1911 he went to the Central Labour College, London as a student and in later years he was a popular lecturer on economic and industrial subjects in the Monmouthshire valleys. He attended the annual Labour Party conference in 1917, was elected a member of Abertillery urban district council in 1919 and miners' agent for the western valleys (Monmouthshire) when he was also selected as a member of the executive council of the South Wales Miners' Federation. In 1921 he was elected Labour M.P. for Abertillery; he was re-elected unopposed in 1931 and 1935, and in the general elections of 1945 and 1950 he gained the highest percentage of votes of any candidate in Wales. He was a pleasant and compassionate person, exceptionally helpful in his dealings with his constituents, crowds of whom attended his surgeries when he returned to his constituency on Friday evenings. He was assiduous in his parliamentary responsibilities, and between 1929 and 1931 he was present in 525 out of 526 divisions. He belonged to the centre-left of the Labour Party and contributed regularly to parliamentary debates on matters such as safety in the mines, unemployment, the means test and pensions. He was a member of the Select Committee on Mining Subsidence, vice-chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party and chairman of the Welsh Parliamentary Party. He married Rachel Smith, seamstress, in 1915; they did not have children. He published Increased production from the worker's point of view (1921) and a pamphlet, Has Labour redeemed its pledges? (1950). He died at his home in Six Bells 14 October 1950.

Author

• John Davies

Sources

• Joyce M. Bellamy and John Saville (eds.), Dictionary of Labour Biography (1972), 3 (1976), 54-55
• The Times, 16 October 1950
• Western Mail, 16 October 1950

Further Reading

• NLW Archives: General Election, 1950. Parliamentary Division of Abertillery. Vote for George Daggar, the Labour Candidate
• Wikipedia Article: George Daggar

Additional Links

• Wikidata: Q5538345

Published date: 2001

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