Sir Gwilym Rowlands (2 December 1878 – 16 January 1949) was a

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, of or about Wales * Welsh language, spoken in Wales * Welsh people, an ethnic group native to Wales Places * Welsh, Arkansas, U.S. * Welsh, Louisiana, U.S. * Welsh, Ohio, U.S. * Welsh Basin, during t ...

Conservative Party politician. Rowlands was the son of Rowland Rowlands, who was manager of the Penygraig

Colliery Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extra ...

Company in the

Rhondda Rhondda , or the Rhondda Valley ( ), is a former coalmining area in South Wales, historically in the county of Glamorgan. It takes its name from the River Rhondda, and embraces two valleys – the larger Rhondda Fawr valley (, 'large') and t ...

. He was educated at

Penygraig Penygraig is a village and community in the Rhondda Valley in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. As a community Penygraig contains the neighbouring districts of Dinas, Edmondstown, Penrhiwfer and Williamstown. Penygraig is wi ...

Board School and Health School, and became a member of Rhondda Urban District Council from 1913 to 1919 and from 1922 to 1929. He first stood for election to the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

as a

Coalition Conservative The Coalition Coupon was a letter sent to parliamentary candidates at the 1918 United Kingdom general election, endorsing them as official representatives of the Coalition Government. The 1918 election took place soon after British victory in the ...

candidate at a by-election in 1920 in the Labour Party-held constituency of

Rhondda West Rhondda West was a parliamentary constituency centred on the Rhondda district of Wales. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post system. Alon ...

, but lost by a wide margin. Despite being an official

candidate, Rowlands described himself as "Labour in the Conservative interest", having been nominated by the local Conservative workingmen's clubs. (He was president of Dunraven Conservative Club in Penygraig and Vice-President of Ton-Pentre Conservative Club in

Ystrad Ystrad (also known as Ystrad Rhondda or Ystrad-Rhondda) is a village and community (and electoral ward) in the Rhondda Fawr valley, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. Description As a community and ward Ystrad contains the neighbouring district of Gell ...

). He stood again in Rhondda West at the 1922 general election, losing by a wider margin. Rowlands was unsuccessful again at

Caerphilly Caerphilly (, ; , ) is a town and community (Wales), community in Wales. It is situated at the southern end of the Rhymney Valley and separated from the Cardiff suburbs of Lisvane and Rhiwbina by Caerphilly Mountain. It is north of Cardiff an ...

1923 In Greece, this year contained only 352 days as 13 days was skipped to achieve the calendrical switch from Julian to Gregorian Calendar. It happened there that Wednesday, 15 February ''(Julian Calendar)'' was followed by Thursday, 1 March ' ...

and

1924 Events January * January 12 – Gopinath Saha shoots Ernest Day, whom he has mistaken for Sir Charles Tegart, the police commissioner of Calcutta, and is arrested soon after. * January 20–January 30, 30 – Kuomintang in Ch ...

, and at

Pontypool Pontypool ( ) is a town and the administrative centre of the county borough of Torfaen, within the Historic counties of Wales, historic boundaries of Monmouthshire (historic), Monmouthshire in South Wales. , it has a population of 29,062. Locat ...

1929, but finally won a seat at the 1935 general election in

Flintshire Flintshire () is a county in the north-east of Wales. It borders the Irish Sea to the north, the Dee Estuary to the north-east, the English county of Cheshire to the east, Wrexham County Borough to the south, and Denbighshire to the west. ...

. He stood down from

Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

at the 1945 general election.

References

External links

* 1878 births 1949 deaths Conservative Party (UK) MPs for Welsh constituencies UK MPs 1935–1945 People from Rhondda Knights Bachelor Commanders of the Order of the British Empire {{Wales-Conservative-UK-MP-stub