Christmas Price Williams

Christmas (Chris) Price Williams (25 December 1881 – 18 August 1965) was a Welsh Liberal politician.

Williams was born on Christmas Day, 1881 the son of Peter Williams, Managing Director of the Brymbo Steel Company near Wrexham. He went to Grove Park School in Wrexham and at Mold, Flintshire before attending Victoria University of Manchester where he received a B.Sc honours degree in science and an M.Sc. In 1909 he married Marion Davies of Brymbo who was the author of a number of novels and plays.

Williams went into engineering and worked in enterprises in Sheffield, Warrington and also in South Africa. He worked as a fitter and draughtsman but also held important managerial positions and undertook research on the industrial capacity and potential of Canada.

Williams was elected to represent Wrexham as Member of Parliament at the 1924 general election. Williams was fighting the sitting Labour MP, Professor Robert Richards who was also a government minister, Under-Secretary of State for India. Williams was fortunate that the local Conservatives decided to withdraw their candidate, E.F.Bushby, at the last minute to ensure a straight fight between Socialist and non-socialist candidates. At the previous election the Liberal vote had exceeded Bushby’s vote by only a few hundred.

While in Parliament, Williams seems to have taken a particular interest in imports and exports (notably of coal) both to the Empire and foreign countries asking details questions of the relevant ministers. He also made an official visit to Barcelona in 1926 to see the working of a hydro-electric plant. Williams was a supporter of David Lloyd George and in February 1927 he co-sponsored a Landlord and Tenant Bill with Lloyd George and other Welsh MPs, strengthening the rights of tenants. He supported Lloyd George as chairman of the Parliamentary Liberal Party and generally voted with him when the party was split over whether or not to support the government in the lobbies.

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