Tag: S O Davies

R. C. Wallhead, M.P.

Following on from the last post, we’ll have a look at S O Davies’ predecessor as Merthyr’s Member of Parliament – R C Wallhead.

Richard Christopher Wallhead (he later changed his middle name to Collingham) was born in London on 28 December 1869. He was educated at St Edward’s Elementary School at Romford before beginning his career as a clerk with the Great Eastern Railway. He then re-trained as a decorator and designer.

Remembering some of the privations of his youth, he became increasing drawn towards socialism, and he joined the Independent Labour Party, under the leadership of Keir Hardie, becoming an active member, and was noted as a successful orator on behalf of the party. In 1906 he was appointed manager of the ‘Labour Leader’, the official publication of the party. With the headquarters of the publication housed in Manchester, Wallhead moved to the city, eventually becoming a member of Manchester City Council in 1919, this despite the fact that, as a committed opponent of World War I, he was detained in 1917 under the Defence of the Realm Act, following an anti-war speech he delivered in South Wales.

Wallhead unsuccessfully contested Coventry in the 1918 general election for the Labour Party, to which the I.L.P. was affiliated, but was elected as chairman of the Party in 1920. In 1921 he resigned his seat on the Manchester City Council to devote his time to his own political career, and to the administrative affairs of the Party.

In 1920 he represented the I.L.P. on the British Labour delegation to Russia to investigate conditions there, where he met Lenin. He would subsequently visit Russia again in 1925.

British Labour delegation to Russia. Wallhead is in the centre.

In 1922, he contested his former mentor, Keir Hardie’s seat at Merthyr. The previous incumbent Edgar Rees Jones, the Liberal candidate, chose not to stand for re-election, and Wallhead, standing as a Labour candidate beat his only rival in the election, the Independent candidate, Richard Mathias, with 53% of the vote. He was subsequently one of only five I.L.P. M.P.s to retain their seats in the 1931 general election, after Labour withdrew their support, and he initially supported the party’s disaffiliation from Labour.

In 1933, however, Wallhead, having become increasing disillusioned with the I.L.P.’s gravitation towards the Soviet policies of violence since its cessation from the Labour Party the previous year, resigned from the I.L.P and joined the Labour Party.

By this time however, concern had been growing for a few years about Wallhead’s health, and he died at his home in Welwyn Garden City on 27 April 1934. Following his death, Clement Attlee, the then acting head of the Labour Party said:

“Dick Wallhead will be mourned by many thousands in the Labour Movement, for he was a man who sacrificed himself to the cause of Socialism….There was no more popular and effective exponent of Socialism than Wallhead in the days when the foundations of the Labour Party were being laid.”

Merthyr’s Heritage Plaques: S. O. Davies

by Keith Lewis-Jones

S.O. Davies M.P.
Plaque sited at Gwynfryn, Park Terrace, CF47 8RF

Stephen Owen (S.O.) Davies, 1886-1972, was Member of Parliament for Merthyr Tydfil from 1934 until his death, a total of 38 years. He had previously been a miner and miner’s agent.

He was a strong advocate of Welsh Home Rule and was rebuked by the Labour Party for his part in the “Parliament for Wales” campaign.

He was rejected on grounds of age as the official Labour candidate in the 1970 General Election but stood as an Independent Socialist, winning the seat convincingly.

S. O. Davies, M. P.

Today marks the 45th anniversary of the death of Merthyr’s longest serving Member of Parliament – S. O. Davies. In 1934 he became MP for Merthyr Tydfil and held the post continuously until his death in 1972; for the Labour Party 1934-1970 and as an Independent Socialist 1970-1972.

S. O. Davies

Stephen Owen Davies was born at 39 John Street, Abercwmboi (officially) on 9 November 1886 (some sources place his birth in 1883 or even earlier), the fourth of six children of Thomas Davies, miner and union organizer, and his wife, Esther.

After attending Cap Coch School in Abercwmboi, Davies started work in Cwmpennar Colliery at the age of twelve, but subsequently studied mining engineering at night classes, and in 1908 secured sponsorship from Brecon Memorial College to study for a BA at University College, Cardiff, with the ultimate intention of entering the non-conformist ministry. Despite Brecon College withdrawing the funding due to Davies’ reticence regarding his religious beliefs, he gained his degree in 1913.

Following his graduation, he began working as a collier in Tumble, and during the First World War was adopted as an Independent Labour Party candidate for Llanelli, and in October 1918 he was elected as the full-time agent to the Dowlais district of the South Wales Miners’ Federation, remaining in the position until 1934, entering into a formidable partnership with his counterpart for the Merthyr district, Noah Ablett.

Davies quickly developed a reputation for militant action. He became strongly opposed to the post-war demands for the nationalization of the British coal industry. He visited Russia in 1922 and became a lifelong admirer of the Soviet system. He remained loyal to the Labour Party however, despite being strongly attracted by the appeal of the Communist Party. In 1924 he was appointed Chief Organizer and Legal Adviser to the South Wales Miners Federation 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 Council in 1931. He later became an alderman of the Council and served as its Mayor in 1945-46. He remained a member of the council until 1949.

In 1934 Davies was elected Labour MP for Merthyr. The same year he remarried, his first wife Margaret Eley (who he had married in 1919) having died two years earlier leaving him with three daughters. His second wife was Sephora Davies from Carmarthenshire, with whom he had two sons.

At Westminster, Davies consistently proved himself of independent mind, as prone to oppose the policies of a Labour government as those of a Conservative administration. Ever the watchdog for socialism, in its purest sense, as well as a rigid apologist for Soviet domestic and foreign policy whatever the excesses, he lost the whip on three occasions between 1953 and 1961 on issues relating to American bases in Britain, West German rearmament, and opposition to the Polaris submarine programme. A thorn in the side of the Wilson government between 1966 and 1970, he disagreed with its policy on public spending, wage controls, and trade union legislation. His support for the idea of Welsh self-government also often found him at variance with party policy.

Unsurprisingly, Davies was never offered government office but proved himself an excellent constituency MP. His concerns included reformation of the national insurance law in 1967, giving additional compensation to former miners afflicted with dust-related diseases.

The Aberfan Disaster in 1966 led to Davies’s final estrangement from the Labour Party. Harold Wilson’s support for the idea of using the disaster fund to contribute towards removal of the tips led Davies to boycott the ceremony bestowing freedom of the borough of Merthyr on the Prime Minister in 1970. His constituency party consequently replaced him as its candidate in the general election later that year. Refusing to accept that his political career was over, he stood as an independent socialist and, campaigning on his record, won by more than 7000 votes over the official Labour candidate. While this may say something about the historically individualistic nature of Merthyr’s politics, it also testified to his reputation and the local esteem in which he was held.

S.O. Davies died at Merthyr’s General Hospital on 25 February 1972, following a chest infection, and was buried at Maesyrarian Cemetery, Mountain Ash, in his native Cynon Valley.