Dictionary of Welsh Biography

ATKIN, LEON (1902 - 1976), minister of the Social Gospel and a campaigner for the underclass in south Wales , David Llewelyn Mort. He did well, coming third out of six, saving his deposit, and receiving 8% of the vote, more than the Communist and Plaid Cymru candidates together. The result was as follows: Neil McBride (Labour), 18,909; R. Owens (Liberal) 4,895; Reverend Leon Atkin (People's Party), 2,464: Miss A. P. Thomas (Conservative), 2,272; E. Chris Rees (Plaid Cymru), 1,620; Bert Pearce (Communist Party
CAYO-EVANS, WILLIAM EDWARD JULIAN (1937 - 1995), political activist fighting against Communist guerillas in the Far East during a campaign which came to be known as the Malaya Emergency. When his period of National Service came to an end, he attended Cirencester Agricultural College for a while before returning home to concentrate on breeding Palomino ac Appaloosa horses on his stud farm at Glandenys. He married Gillianne Mary Davies from Llangeitho in 1966, and they had
DAVIES, STEPHEN OWEN (1886? - 1972), miners' leader and Labour politician Labour Party, despite being strongly attracted by the appeal of the Communist Party. In 1924 he was appointed Chief Organizer and Legal Adviser to the SWMF and also became its Vice-President in the same year. He also served on the Executive of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain, 1924-34, as the representative of the South Wales miners, and he was elected a member of the Merthyr Tydfil Borough
EVANS, GEORGE EWART (1909 - 1988), writer and oral historian Born 1 April 1909 in Abercynon, third son of William Evans (died 1942) of Pentyrch, shopkeeper, and first son of his second wife Janet, née Hitchings, of Llangynwyd. He came of a radical family and was named after William Ewart Gladstone; his own radicalism, fired by the suffering of the Welsh miners during the inter-war depression, took him further to the left and into the Communist Party. He
FRANCIS, DAVID (1911 - 1981), trade unionist and miners' leader ensued in the coal industry. Francis was hugely impressed by the presence of Arthur Horner, who delivered several powerful public speeches in the Rhondda valleys, later to become the first Communist president of the South Wales Miners Federation in 1936, and eventually a regular visitor to Francis's home. Horner's values of international class solidarity, the unity of the South Wales Miners' Federation
GREEN, BEATRICE (1894 - 1927), political activist long articles to Labour Woman recounting her experiences. Although not declaring herself a Communist, she was clearly impressed with the Soviet system, and wrote that women had achieved equality. Green continued to be a woman of action until her untimely death from ulcerative colitis at the Aberbeeg Hospital, Monmouthshire on 19 October 1927. She was buried at Blaenau Gwent Church, Abertillery. In an
GRIFFITH, HUW WYNNE (1915 - 1993), minister (Presb) and a prominent ecumenical leader , Shelter and other organisations dealing with poverty and social injustice. He gave supported the Anti-Apartheid group in Aberystwyth, Amnesty International and Ockenden Venture as well as many other pressure groups. He welcomed children of refugees from Germany to enjoy the facilities of the Aberystwyth and he extended the hand of friendship to refugees from communist Hungary during the uprising of 1956
HEYCOCK, LLEWELLYN (LORD HEYCOCK OF TAIBACH), (1905 - 1990), prominent leader in local government in Glamorganshire , especially in 1931, he became disillusioned with MacDonald. Heycock took a prominent part in the 1926 General Strike, selling left-wing literature, avoiding the police, and becoming attracted to the local cell of the Communist Party. But his flirtation was soon over as he came into contact with Aneurin Bevan. He charmed meetings of the unemployed on Aberavon beach, and he remembered a crowd of seven
HODGE, JULIAN STEPHEN ALFRED (1904 - 2004), financier off duty were filled with the study of accountancy, much of it conducted in the spare room made available to him by a local Communist and his wife, Tom and Edith Evans, who offered some quiet away from the cramped family home. Qualifying in 1930 with the help of correspondence courses and night classes at Cardiff Technical College, this was the start of a journey that saw him, still a GWR employee
JANNER, BARNETT (BARON JANNER), (1892 - 1982), politician . At the general election in 1931, Janner obtained a surprising result when he won the seat from Hall, largely because Harry Pollitt, the Communist candidate, took some 2,500 votes from Labour. Janner's maiden speech in the House of Commons was on the subject of leasehold reform, which drew on his experience as a solicitor in Cardiff. After the Nazi Party came to power in Germany, Janner made great
JONES, JACK (1884 - 1970), author and playwright mentioned in dispatches from France and later wounded. By 1921, the birth of two more sons had completed his family. In the same year his Miners' Federation lodge at Pontypool sent him as a delegate to the formation Conference of the British Communist Party held at Manchester : there he was chosen as temporary corresponding secretary for the South Wales coalfield. For months he sought to establish a
JONES, LEWIS (1897 - 1939), communist agitator and author assistance committees in Bridgend, Pontypridd, and the Glamorgan County Council, and led the Welsh contingents on 'national hunger marches' to London in 1934 and 1936. Jones was elected a member of the Glamorgan County Council, 1934-9, and of the Welsh Committee of the Communist Party, 1931-9. He led campaigns in Wales against the Fascist attack on republican Spain, 1937-9, and died just after addressing

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