Ness Edwards

Ness Edwards(5 April 1897 – 3 May 1968) was a trade unionist andWelshLabour Partypolitician: he served asMember of Parliament(MP) forCaerphillyfrom July 1939 until his death.

He was born inAbertillery,Monmouthshire,Wales,the second of six children of Onesimus Edwards Snr and his wife Ellen.

A coal miner and trade unionist, he started work at thePenybont collieryon 5 April 1910, his 13th birthday.By the age of 17 he was elected chairman of the miners lodge at theArriel Griffin colliery.

In 1917, at the age of 20, he was imprisoned as aconscientious objectortomilitary servicein theFirst World War.He had joined theIndependent Labour Partyin 1915, and through the ILP he came into contact with the No Conscription Fellowship. Whenconscriptionwas introduced in 1916, Ness Edwards' conscientious objections to compulsory service were 'absolutist' and based on his trade union and socialist principles. He was treated harshly - imprisoned with hard labour at Dartmoor and later at Wormwood Scrubs, beaten in Brecon barracks and chased naked by soldiers with fixed bayonets, forced to work in stone quarries in freezing weather.

He was elected to Parliament at the1939 Caerphilly by-election,following the death of Labour MP and fellow conscientious objectorMorgan Jones.Edwards remained as Caerphilly's MP until his death in 1968.

At the beginning ofWorld War IIEdwards was instrumental in helpingCzechminers escape theSudetenland.

An associate ofAneurin BevanandJim Griffiths,Edwards wasParliamentary Secretaryto theMinistry of Labourand National Service from 1945 to 1950 andPostmaster Generalfrom 1950 to 1951. In 1948 he became a member of thePrivy Council.

In 1925 Ness Edwards married Elina Victoria Williams, one of six children of Richard Williams, acounty court bailiff,and his wife Anne Davies, ofBridgend.His daughterLlin Golding,born 'Llinos', was Labour MP forNewcastle-under-Lymefrom 1986 to 2001: she was appointed to the House of Lords in 2001 as Baroness Golding

Ness Edwards died atCaerphilly Miners' Hospitalon 3 May 1968, aged 71.

Works

• (1920) "Some Thoughts on Tactics"Workers' DreadnoughtVol. VII No. 18 24 July 1920
• (1938)History of theSouth Wales Miners' Federation;vol. 1. Lawrence & Wishart,
• (1958) "Is this the road?"; Cambrian Press, Hughes (1 Jan. 1956)

References

• Davies, J., (2001). EDWARDS, NESS (1897 - 1968), trade unionist and Member of Parliament. Dictionary of Welsh Biography. Retrieved 19 Dec 2021, fromhttps://biography.wales/article/s2-EDWA-NES-1897.(With links to photographs and election literature held by the National Library of Wales)
• Craig, F. W. S.(1983) [1969].British parliamentary election results 1918-1949(3rd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services.ISBN0-900178-06-X.
• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages