Goronwy Owen
Encyclopedia
Goronwy Owen was a Welsh
Liberal
politician and businessman.
. He was educated at Ardwyn Grammar School and the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth where he gained an MA degree. He worked as a schoolteacher in London until 1914 but then joined the London Welsh Battalion (15th Royal Welch Fusiliers
) as an officer. He served in France and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order
in 1916. He was promoted to Brigade Major and twice mentioned in dispatches. By 1948 however he was being referred to as having achieved the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. After the war, he was called to the Bar by Grays Inn but the law was a subordinate interest to business and politics. He became a member of the London Stock Exchange
and went into the oil business. He became president of British Controlled Oilfields which had interests in Venezuela
and the Caribbean
and was on the board of the Trinidad Petroleum Development Company as well as having interests in other commercial and trading companies.
(MP) for Caernarvonshire
at the 1923 general election
. He defended the seat at the 1929 general election
as a Liberal, beating Labour, Conservative and Welsh Nationalist opposition with a majority of 3,460. At the 1931 election
he was styled an Independent Liberal. He held his seat against Labour and two Nationalist opponents but by the much narrower majority of 694. At the next election in 1935
, Owen again stood as an Independent Liberal against Labour and Nationalist opposition, increasing his majority to 1,497. At Labour’s landslide victory in the 1945 general election
, he again had no Conservative candidate to contend with but he once more faced Labour and Welsh Nationalist challenge. He was beaten by the similarly named Labour candidate Goronwy Owen Roberts by a majority of over 6,000.
by marriage; his wife Gladwyn, whom he married in 1925, was the sister of Edna, the wife of Gwilym Lloyd George. During the Liberal splits of the 1930s Owen was therefore part of Lloyd George’s so-called family group of four Independent Liberal MPs which also comprised ,Lloyd George, his daughter Lady Megan Lloyd George and his son Gwilym. In August 1931 the Lloyd George family group initially supported the formation of the National government. Gwilym became a junior minister at the Board of Trade
and Owen became a government whip
, taking the post of Comptroller of the Household
. However they broke with the coalition over the issue of Free Trade and resigned their government posts in October. For a brief time also in 1931 Owen was Liberal Chief Whip in the House of Commons. He was knighted in the New Years Honours List of 1944 for political and public services. The family group tended to vote together on the big issues, particularly the conduct of foreign affairs and in 1938 they were among those MPs who voted against Neville Chamberlain
’s Munich Agreement
appeasing Adolf Hitler
with the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia
. However one historian has dismissed them as “a tiny and ineffective group in Parliament”
County Council , Chairman of the Agricultural Wages Committee for Caernarfonshire , Anglesey
, Merionethshire
and Montgomeryshire
. He was a magistrate
and deputy lieutenant
for Caernarfonshire. He was also sometime president of the North Wales Liberal Federation. Owen was sometime Chairman of Caernarvonshire and Anglesey Territorial and Auxiliary Forces Association and County Army Welfare Officer. He was Chairman of Gwynedd Police Authority from 1955–56, havin served as Vice-Chairman from 1954–55).
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
Liberal
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
politician and businessman.
Education, war & business
Owen was born at Penllwyn, AberystwythAberystwyth
Aberystwyth is a historic market town, administrative centre and holiday resort within Ceredigion, Wales. Often colloquially known as Aber, it is located at the confluence of the rivers Ystwyth and Rheidol....
. He was educated at Ardwyn Grammar School and the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth where he gained an MA degree. He worked as a schoolteacher in London until 1914 but then joined the London Welsh Battalion (15th Royal Welch Fusiliers
Royal Welch Fusiliers
The Royal Welch Fusiliers was an infantry regiment of the British Army, part of the Prince of Wales' Division. It was founded in 1689 to oppose James II and the imminent war with France...
) as an officer. He served in France and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order
Distinguished Service Order
The Distinguished Service Order is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, and formerly of other parts of the British Commonwealth and Empire, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typically in actual combat.Instituted on 6 September...
in 1916. He was promoted to Brigade Major and twice mentioned in dispatches. By 1948 however he was being referred to as having achieved the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. After the war, he was called to the Bar by Grays Inn but the law was a subordinate interest to business and politics. He became a member of the London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange
The London Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in the City of London within the United Kingdom. , the Exchange had a market capitalisation of US$3.7495 trillion, making it the fourth-largest stock exchange in the world by this measurement...
and went into the oil business. He became president of British Controlled Oilfields which had interests in Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
and the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
and was on the board of the Trinidad Petroleum Development Company as well as having interests in other commercial and trading companies.
Politics
Owen was elected as Liberal Member of ParliamentMember of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
(MP) for Caernarvonshire
Caernarvonshire (UK Parliament constituency)
Caernarvonshire was a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of England then of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800 and of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1885 and from 1918 until 1950. It elected one Member of Parliament by the first past the post...
at the 1923 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1923
-Seats summary:-References:*F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987*-External links:***...
. He defended the seat at the 1929 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1929
-Seats summary:-References:*F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987*-External links:***...
as a Liberal, beating Labour, Conservative and Welsh Nationalist opposition with a majority of 3,460. At the 1931 election
United Kingdom general election, 1931
The United Kingdom general election on Tuesday 27 October 1931 was the last in the United Kingdom not held on a Thursday. It was also the last election, and the only one under universal suffrage, where one party received an absolute majority of the votes cast.The 1931 general election was the...
he was styled an Independent Liberal. He held his seat against Labour and two Nationalist opponents but by the much narrower majority of 694. At the next election in 1935
United Kingdom general election, 1935
The United Kingdom general election held on 14 November 1935 resulted in a large, though reduced, majority for the National Government now led by Conservative Stanley Baldwin. The greatest number of MPs, as before, were Conservative, while the National Liberal vote held steady...
, Owen again stood as an Independent Liberal against Labour and Nationalist opposition, increasing his majority to 1,497. At Labour’s landslide victory in the 1945 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1945
The United Kingdom general election of 1945 was a general election held on 5 July 1945, with polls in some constituencies delayed until 12 July and in Nelson and Colne until 19 July, due to local wakes weeks. The results were counted and declared on 26 July, due in part to the time it took to...
, he again had no Conservative candidate to contend with but he once more faced Labour and Welsh Nationalist challenge. He was beaten by the similarly named Labour candidate Goronwy Owen Roberts by a majority of over 6,000.
The Lloyd George Family Group of MPs
Goronwy Owen was distantly related to David Lloyd GeorgeDavid Lloyd George
David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor OM, PC was a British Liberal politician and statesman...
by marriage; his wife Gladwyn, whom he married in 1925, was the sister of Edna, the wife of Gwilym Lloyd George. During the Liberal splits of the 1930s Owen was therefore part of Lloyd George’s so-called family group of four Independent Liberal MPs which also comprised ,Lloyd George, his daughter Lady Megan Lloyd George and his son Gwilym. In August 1931 the Lloyd George family group initially supported the formation of the National government. Gwilym became a junior minister at the Board of Trade
Board of Trade
The Board of Trade is a committee of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, originating as a committee of inquiry in the 17th century and evolving gradually into a government department with a diverse range of functions...
and Owen became a government whip
Whip (politics)
A whip is an official in a political party whose primary purpose is to ensure party discipline in a legislature. Whips are a party's "enforcers", who typically offer inducements and threaten punishments for party members to ensure that they vote according to the official party policy...
, taking the post of Comptroller of the Household
Comptroller of the Household
The Comptroller of the Household is an ancient position in the English royal household, currently the second-ranking member of the Lord Steward's department, and often a cabinet member. He was an ex officio member of the Board of Green Cloth, until that body was abolished in the reform of the local...
. However they broke with the coalition over the issue of Free Trade and resigned their government posts in October. For a brief time also in 1931 Owen was Liberal Chief Whip in the House of Commons. He was knighted in the New Years Honours List of 1944 for political and public services. The family group tended to vote together on the big issues, particularly the conduct of foreign affairs and in 1938 they were among those MPs who voted against Neville Chamberlain
Neville Chamberlain
Arthur Neville Chamberlain FRS was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. Chamberlain is best known for his appeasement foreign policy, and in particular for his signing of the Munich Agreement in 1938, conceding the...
’s Munich Agreement
Munich Agreement
The Munich Pact was an agreement permitting the Nazi German annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland. The Sudetenland were areas along Czech borders, mainly inhabited by ethnic Germans. The agreement was negotiated at a conference held in Munich, Germany, among the major powers of Europe without...
appeasing Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
with the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
. However one historian has dismissed them as “a tiny and ineffective group in Parliament”
North Wales
Owen had a home in north Wales and played an active part in local and political life there. He was a councillor and Alderman of CaernarfonshireCaernarfonshire
Caernarfonshire , historically spelled as Caernarvonshire or Carnarvonshire in English during its existence, was one of the thirteen historic counties, a vice-county and a former administrative county of Wales....
County Council , Chairman of the Agricultural Wages Committee for Caernarfonshire , Anglesey
Anglesey
Anglesey , also known by its Welsh name Ynys Môn , is an island and, as Isle of Anglesey, a county off the north west coast of Wales...
, Merionethshire
Merionethshire
Merionethshire is one of thirteen historic counties of Wales, a vice county and a former administrative county.The administrative county of Merioneth, created under the Local Government Act 1888, was abolished under the Local Government Act 1972 on April 1, 1974...
and Montgomeryshire
Montgomeryshire
Montgomeryshire, also known as Maldwyn is one of thirteen historic counties and a former administrative county of Wales. Montgomeryshire is still used as a vice-county for wildlife recording...
. He was a magistrate
Magistrate
A magistrate is an officer of the state; in modern usage the term usually refers to a judge or prosecutor. This was not always the case; in ancient Rome, a magistratus was one of the highest government officers and possessed both judicial and executive powers. Today, in common law systems, a...
and deputy lieutenant
Deputy Lieutenant
In the United Kingdom, a Deputy Lieutenant is one of several deputies to the Lord Lieutenant of a lieutenancy area; an English ceremonial county, Welsh preserved county, Scottish lieutenancy area, or Northern Irish county borough or county....
for Caernarfonshire. He was also sometime president of the North Wales Liberal Federation. Owen was sometime Chairman of Caernarvonshire and Anglesey Territorial and Auxiliary Forces Association and County Army Welfare Officer. He was Chairman of Gwynedd Police Authority from 1955–56, havin served as Vice-Chairman from 1954–55).