George Thomas, Viscount Tonypandy
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The Right Honourable The Viscount Tonypandy PC |
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| Speaker of the House of Commons | |
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In office 3 February 1976 – 10 June 1983 |
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| Monarch | Elizabeth II |
| Preceded by | Selwyn Lloyd |
| Succeeded by | Bernard Weatherill |
| Chairman of Ways and Means | |
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In office 28 February 1974 – 3 February 1976 |
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| Speaker | Selwyn Lloyd |
| Preceded by | Robert Grant-Ferris |
| Succeeded by | Oscar Murton |
| Secretary of State for Wales | |
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In office 6 April 1968 – 19 June 1970 |
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| Prime Minister | Harold Wilson |
| Preceded by | Cledwyn Hughes |
| Succeeded by | Peter Thomas |
| Minister of State for Commonwealth Affairs | |
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In office 7 January 1967 – 6 April 1968 |
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| Prime Minister | Harold Wilson |
| Preceded by | Judith Hart |
| Succeeded by | Malcolm Shepherd |
| Minister of State for Wales | |
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In office 6 April 1966 – 7 January 1967 |
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| Prime Minister | Harold Wilson |
| Preceded by | Goronwy Roberts |
| Succeeded by | Eirene White |
| Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department | |
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In office 20 October 1964 – 6 April 1966 |
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| Prime Minister | Harold Wilson |
| Preceded by |
Mervyn Pike Montague Woodhouse |
| Succeeded by |
Maurice Foley Dick Taverne |
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Member of Parliament for Cardiff West Cardiff Central (1945–1950) |
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In office 5 July 1945 – 9 June 1983 |
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| Preceded by | Ernest Nathaniel Bennett |
| Succeeded by | Stefan Terlezki |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
29 January 1909 Port Talbot, Wales, UK |
| Died | 22 September 1997 (aged 88) Cardiff, Wales, UK |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party |
Labour (1945–1976) Speaker (1976–1983) Crossbench (1983–1997) |
| Alma mater | University College, Southampton |
| Religion | Methodist |
Thomas George Thomas, 1st Viscount Tonypandy, PC (29 January 1909 – 22 September 1997) was a British Labour Party politician and Speaker of the House of Commons. Born in Port Talbot, Wales, he initially worked as a teacher in both London and Cardiff. An MP from 1945 to 1983, he held office in Harold Wilson's 1964–1970 Labour administration, notably as Secretary of State for Wales from 1968 to 1970. As a junior minister at the Wales Office, he was one of the first on the scene of the Aberfan disaster 21 October 1966, although later involved in the controversial government decision to use money from the Aberfan Charity Fund to clear remaining National Coal Board waste tips from around the village. In 1976 Thomas was elected Speaker of the House of Commons, in which role the first broadcasting of parliamentary proceedings brought him unprecedented public attention. He retired from parliament in 1983 and was elevated to the peerage as Viscount Tonypandy, of Rhondda in the County of Mid Glamorgan.
Thomas was born in Port Talbot, Wales, the second son of Zachariah Thomas, a Welsh speaking miner from Carmarthen, and Emma Jane Tilbury, daughter of a founder of the English Methodist Church in Tonypandy. He had two elder sisters, Ada May and Dolly, one elder brother Emrys and one younger brother Ivor. His father became a heavy drinker and the family were happy when he joined up at the start of the First World War. They were less pleased when Emma had to take her marriage certificate to court to prove she was Zachariah's wife and not the woman in Kent to whom he had allocated his soldier allowance. He never returned to South Wales and died of tuberculosis in 1925.
Thomas was raised by his mother in the village of Trealaw in South Wales, just across the Rhondda Fawr river from the town of Tonypandy. All four of his siblings left school at age 13. His two sisters went into domestic service, his elder brother went down the pit and his younger brother worked in a shop. He attended Trealaw Boys' School where he passed the scholarship examination for Tonypandy Higher Grade School, later promoted to Tonypandy Secondary Grammar School. On leaving school Thomas became a pupil teacher, first in Trealaw and then in Fanshawe Crescent School, Dagenham, Essex, after which he did a two-year teacher-training course at University College, Southampton. He then worked as a teacher in both London and Cardiff.
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