Henry Morris-Jones
Encyclopedia
Sir Henry Morris-Jones MC
, DL
(2 November 1884 – 9 July 1972) was a Welsh doctor, soldier and Liberal
, later Liberal National
politician.
village of Waenfawr, the son of Captain Morris Jones and his wife Ann. He was educated at Menai Bridge Grammar School, Anglesey
and St. Mungo’s College of Medicine in Glasgow. In 1931 he married Leila Paget-Marsland, a widow. They never had children.
, gaining a further licence for surgery (LRCP&S) from Edinburgh
, and was for twenty years a general practitioner
in Colwyn Bay
in North Wales. During the First World War, Morris-Jones served in the 2nd Battalion of the Worcestershire Regiment
as a medical officer in France, during which time he was awarded the Military Cross
. He was later granted the rank of honorary captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps
. In 1915 he co-authored an article in the British Medical Journal
with Hugh Lett, Surgical Experiences at Wimereux, France about his work at the Number 5, British Red Cross Hospital, also known as Lady Hadfield’s Hospital. He later served as Chairman of his division of the British Medical Association
and of the Colwyn Bay Medical Society.
Designate of the County, 1929–30, and also served as a member of the County Council. In 1956 he received the honorary freedom
of Colwyn Bay. He was also appointed a Deputy Lieutenant
of Denbighshire and was a Justice of the Peace
.
At the 1929 general election
, Morris-Jones was nominated by the Llangollen
Liberal Association to be the candidate for Denbigh
and on 4 April he was selected by the local party to stand in succession to the sitting Member of Parliament
(MP) Ellis William Davies
who was resigning on grounds of ill-health. Morris-Jones had a straight fight against the 32 year old Conservative
, Captain Alan Crosland Graham
of Clwyd Hall, Ruthin
, the political private secretary to Lord Balfour
. The Liberal party improved its position nationally in 1929, going up from 40 to 59 seats and increasing its share of the vote by nearly 6%. However it did not make the breakthrough it had hoped for against the background of its ambitious and innovative policy programme of social, industrial and economic reform under the leadership of a reinvigorated Lloyd George
. In this climate, and without a Labour
opponent in Denbigh, Morris-Jones was able to increase the Liberal majority from 1,421 to 8,189.
and agriculture both nationally and as they affected Denbighshire. He was an honorary Treasurer of the Parliamentary Medical Group from time of election in 1929 and was later appointed as a member of the Committee of Trustees set up under the MPs Pensions Act. In 1938 he was a member of a Parliamentary delegation participating in events to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the founding of Australia
. While there he took part in discussions about the development of the Empire
, measures to stimulate immigration to Australia and the promoting of Australian trade with the USA. More grimly, he was a member of a Parliamentary Delegation to Buchenwald concentration camp
soon after its liberation in April 1945.
and initially supported by the Conservative and Liberal parties. However the Liberals were increasingly divided over the issue of the National Government, particularly over the issue OF Free Trade
. The official party led by Sir Herbert Samuel
although agreeing to go into the 1931 general election
supporting the government became more and more worried about the government’s stance on Free Trade and worried about the predominance of the Conservatives in the coalition. However a group of Liberal MPs led by Sir John Simon who were concerned to ensure the National Government had a wide cross-party base formed the Liberal National Party to more openly support MacDonald’s administration. Morris-Jones, who had been appalled at the economic record of the second Labour Government, joined this group and thereafter sat in the House of Commons as a Liberal National. At the 1931 general election, Morris-Jones was not opposed in Denbigh either by a Free Trade Liberal or Conservative candidate. Although bitterly opposed to MacDonald’s government, Labour did not stand a candidate either, presumably for tactical reasons. So on Friday 16 October Morris-Jones retained his Parliamentary seat as one of 65 MPs returned unopposed.
administration, dominated by the massive Conservative strength in Parliament.
and he held that post until 1935. From 1935 to 1937 he was a Lord Commissioner of the Treasury. He was knighted in the prime minister’s list of the New Year’s Honours in January 1937. In May 1937 when Neville Chamberlain
succeeded Stanley Baldwin
as prime minister, Morris-Jones was offered the position of Chief Whip to the Liberal National group after the formation of the new government but preferred ‘for personal reasons’ to return to the backbenches.
in November. The Conservatives supported Morris-Jones and the intervention of a Labour candidate helped take votes away from Davies. Across the country the Liberal National vote remained steady and Morris-Jones held the seat with a majority of over 5,000.
and Edgar Granville. However at the time Morris-Jones described himself as having become an Independent although his closeness to the official party was evident in his voting record and associations. Perhaps he was already thinking about post-war political alignments and wished to keep his options open. He must have been aware of the feeling that, as in the earlier split in the party between 1916 and 1923, Liberals of whatever stripe had a common Liberalism to bind them. In the end the political and electoral realities overcame the sense of Liberal family and Morris-Jones rejoined the Liberal Nationals in March 1943, presumably sensing or calculating it would be the safest way to enable him to continue as an MP.
at Aberystwyth
and make a ceremonial visit to Caernarfon Castle
. At this time Lloyd George was Constable of the Caernarfon Castle and Morris-Jones was involved in discussion and debate with him and others about the arrangements for the visit and some bad-tempered exchanges took place over the choice of music for the royal programme which Lloyd George felt was not up to the dignity of the occasion.
In 1941-2, Morris-Jones served as Chairman of the Welsh Parliamentary Party. Liberal MPs from Wales had always regarded themselves as separate Parliamentary entity, certainly from as early as 1886. They saw their role as promoting distinctly Welsh causes and being the party of Welsh nationalism. This role diminished with the decline of Liberalism in Wales during the 20th century and establishment of Plaid Cymru
in 1925 but there remained a sentiment at Westminster that Welsh parliamentarians should meet together in the interests of their country and the Welsh Parliamentary Party which Morris-Jones chaired was therefore an informal group of Welsh MPs from all parties which met occasionally from the mid-1930s to discuss issues affecting Wales and its relationship with Whitehall and Westminster.
In 1949 Morris-Jones put forward a Private Member's Bill
to create the post of Secretary of State for Wales and Monmouthshire
supported by a Parliamentary Under Secretary and a Department of State to be known as the Welsh Office for which he got a measure of cross-party support although it did not pass into law. Wales had to wait until 1951 for a dedicated minister, 1964 for its own Secretary of State and 1965 before the establishment of the Welsh Office
. The National Assembly for Wales
and the Welsh Assembly Government
followed in 1999.
Morris-Jones was also a member of the Gorsedd
, an association of poets, writers, musicians, artists and individuals who have made a significant and distinguished contribution to Welsh language, literature, and culture, under the Bardic title of Rhoslanydd. He also served as a member of the Governing Body of Representative Body of the Church in Wales between 1950 and 1962.
Morris-Jones faced official Liberal and Labour opposition in Denbigh but was supported as the government candidate by the Conservatives. In a straight fight against either Liberal or Labour he might well have lost, given the huge anti-government swings recorded at that election. However with the opposition split, he held on with a majority of 4,922. Although he stood down as an MP at the 1950 general election
, Morris-Jones thereafter remained loyal to the Liberal Nationals, or National Liberal Party as it became known after 1948. He served as Vice Chairman of the Executive of the National Liberal Party in 1952 and the following year (1953–54) he went on to be Chairman. The National Liberals again held Denbigh against split opposition in 1950, albeit with a reduced majority. It remained a National Liberal seat until 1959
when a Conservative candidate was put up, successfully retaining it. It then stayed Conservative until the constituency was abolished in 1983.
had taken the Labour whip. In fact the party continued to decline at the 1950 general election, making a net loss of three seats leaving then with only nine. Perhaps Morris-Jones also foresaw the final absorption of the National Liberals into the Conservative Party. The formal merger of the two parties had already taken place in 1948 and from then on, it was only a matter of time before any remaining genuinely Liberal element was subsumed by the overwhelming numbers and philosophy of the Conservatives, something which given his Liberal past and strong convictions, Morris-Jones may well have regretted. Although, as noted above, once outside Parliament he stuck with the National Liberals, perhaps in the hope of a peerage.
(NHS). By and large he was not in favour, usually taking the side of the professional organisations in opposing measures to force doctors into the NHS. By 1948 he was much more closely aligned with the Conservatives and their thinking. That Morris-Jones was a man of traditional views in relation to medical matters can be deduced from his association with the campaign to prevent the sale of contraceptives from slot machines, as a ‘temptation to youth’.
An early indication of Morris-Jones’s misgivings over a national health scheme came in 1942 in the debate over the Beveridge Report. In a letter to The Times
newspaper he predicted that the setting up of a full-time National Medical Service for the whole population would cut across the traditional relationship between the doctor and patient and would need a great popular mandate. The tone of Morris-Jones’s letter made it clear he did not approve of such a scheme and doubted whether it would ever work. Writing again to the Times on 15 March 1948, Morris-Jones identified with the concerns of many doctors about the powers to be conferred on the Minister of Health
and with the doctors’ strong desire to retain their professional freedoms and their livelihoods as well as their fears that the new arrangements would bring about a deterioration in standards of medical and clinical service and professionalism. He ended by writing, “The mines can be nationalised; the art and science of medicine cannot be”. However, like the doctors, Morris-Jones eventually bowed to the inevitable. Even though there were many doctors who disliked the Act, Morris-Jones felt they had achieved a significant amount though negotiation and should therefore accept the government’s offer to join the NHS in July 1948. A further justification he made was that this should be done on behalf of patients who would otherwise suffer from a continuing fight between government and medical professionals.
A year after the introduction of the NHS, Morris-Jones was again writing to the Times to highlight what he saw as the decline in status of the General Practitioner, which he described as’ the first line of defence of our health service’. He believed that there was evidence to show that after a year of the NHS there had been a deterioration in the art of medicine as practiced by GPs, an expansion of their workload, an increase in bureaucracy, difficulties in seeing cases through and getting patients into hospitals.
. The collection consists of papers between 1896 and 1965, including diaries, 1911–1918, 1925–1944; pocket diaries, 1912–1962; personal notebooks, 1950–1962; letters, 1923–1963, mainly from fellow MPs; parliamentary papers, 1941–1949 and 1963; miscellaneous papers, 1906–1965; papers relating to a parliamentary delegation to Buchenwald concentration camp, 1945; notes on his ancestors, 1896–1945; press cuttings and photographs relating to his career, 1927–1960; and copies, typescripts and material relating to his publications, including Doctor in the Whips' Room, 1915-1960.
Military Cross
The Military Cross is the third-level military decoration awarded to officers and other ranks of the British Armed Forces; and formerly also to officers of other Commonwealth countries....
, DL
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....
(2 November 1884 – 9 July 1972) was a Welsh doctor, soldier and 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...
, later Liberal National
National Liberal Party (UK, 1931)
The National Liberal Party, known until 1948 as the Liberal National Party, was a liberal political party in the United Kingdom from 1931 to 1968...
politician.
Early life, education and family
Morris-Jones was born in the 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....
village of Waenfawr, the son of Captain Morris Jones and his wife Ann. He was educated at Menai Bridge Grammar School, 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...
and St. Mungo’s College of Medicine in Glasgow. In 1931 he married Leila Paget-Marsland, a widow. They never had children.
Medical career
Morris-Jones qualified as a doctor (LRFPS) in 1906 from GlasgowRoyal College of Physicians
The Royal College of Physicians of London was founded in 1518 as the College of Physicians by royal charter of King Henry VIII in 1518 - the first medical institution in England to receive a royal charter...
, gaining a further licence for surgery (LRCP&S) from Edinburgh
Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh
The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh is an organisation dedicated to the pursuit of excellence and advancement in surgical practice, through its interest in education, training and examinations, its liaison with external medical bodies and representation of the modern surgical workforce...
, and was for twenty years a general practitioner
General practitioner
A general practitioner is a medical practitioner who treats acute and chronic illnesses and provides preventive care and health education for all ages and both sexes. They have particular skills in treating people with multiple health issues and comorbidities...
in Colwyn Bay
Colwyn Bay
- Demography :Prior to local government reorganisation on 1 April 1974 Colwyn Bay was a municipal borough with a population of c.25,000, but in 1974 this designation disappeared leaving five separate parishes, known as communities in Wales, of which the one bearing the name Colwyn Bay encompassed...
in North Wales. During the First World War, Morris-Jones served in the 2nd Battalion of the Worcestershire Regiment
Worcestershire Regiment
The Worcestershire Regiment was an infantry regiment of the line in the British Army, formed in 1881 by the amalgamation of the 29th Regiment of Foot and the 36th Regiment of Foot....
as a medical officer in France, during which time he was awarded the Military Cross
Military Cross
The Military Cross is the third-level military decoration awarded to officers and other ranks of the British Armed Forces; and formerly also to officers of other Commonwealth countries....
. He was later granted the rank of honorary captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps
Royal Army Medical Corps
The Royal Army Medical Corps is a specialist corps in the British Army which provides medical services to all British Army personnel and their families in war and in peace...
. In 1915 he co-authored an article in the British Medical Journal
British Medical Journal
BMJ is a partially open-access peer-reviewed medical journal. Originally called the British Medical Journal, the title was officially shortened to BMJ in 1988. The journal is published by the BMJ Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of the British Medical Association...
with Hugh Lett, Surgical Experiences at Wimereux, France about his work at the Number 5, British Red Cross Hospital, also known as Lady Hadfield’s Hospital. He later served as Chairman of his division of the British Medical Association
British Medical Association
The British Medical Association is the professional association and registered trade union for doctors in the United Kingdom. The association does not regulate or certify doctors, a responsibility which lies with the General Medical Council. The association’s headquarters are located in BMA House,...
and of the Colwyn Bay Medical Society.
Politics
Morris-Jones took an active part in the public life of the town of Colwyn Bay and the County of Denbigh. He was elected a member of Colwyn Bay Urban District Council, later becoming its Chairman. He was High SheriffHigh Sheriff
A high sheriff is, or was, a law enforcement officer in the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States.In England and Wales, the office is unpaid and partly ceremonial, appointed by the Crown through a warrant from the Privy Council. In Cornwall, the High Sheriff is appointed by the Duke of...
Designate of the County, 1929–30, and also served as a member of the County Council. In 1956 he received the honorary freedom
Freedom of the City
Freedom of the City is an honour bestowed by some municipalities in Australia, Canada, Ireland, France, Italy, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain, the United Kingdom, Gibraltar and Rhodesia to esteemed members of its community and to organisations to be honoured, often for service to the community;...
of Colwyn Bay. He was also appointed a 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....
of Denbighshire and was a Justice of the Peace
Justice of the Peace
A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...
.
At the 1929 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1929
-Seats summary:-References:*F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987*-External links:***...
, Morris-Jones was nominated by the Llangollen
Llangollen
Llangollen is a small town and community in Denbighshire, north-east Wales, situated on the River Dee and on the edge of the Berwyn mountains. It has a population of 3,412.-History:...
Liberal Association to be the candidate for Denbigh
Denbigh (UK Parliament constituency)
Denbigh was a county constituency centred on the town of Denbigh in North Wales. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first-past-the-post voting system....
and on 4 April he was selected by the local party to stand in succession to the sitting Member of Parliament
Member 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) Ellis William Davies
Ellis William Davies
Ellis William Davies was a Welsh Liberal Party and later, briefly, Labour Party and Liberal National politician and lawyer.-Early life and work:...
who was resigning on grounds of ill-health. Morris-Jones had a straight fight against the 32 year old Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
, Captain Alan Crosland Graham
Alan Crosland Graham
Captain Alan Crosland Graham was a British Conservative politician.He was the son of Sir Crosland Graham of Clwyd Hall, Ruthin, Denbighshire, a Liverpool businessman. He was educated at Rugby School...
of Clwyd Hall, Ruthin
Ruthin
Ruthin is a community and the county town of Denbighshire in north Wales. Located around a hill in the southern part of the Vale of Clwyd - the older part of the town, the castle and Saint Peter's Square are located on top of the hill, while many newer parts of the town are on the floodplain of...
, the political private secretary to Lord Balfour
Arthur Balfour
Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour, KG, OM, PC, DL was a British Conservative politician and statesman...
. The Liberal party improved its position nationally in 1929, going up from 40 to 59 seats and increasing its share of the vote by nearly 6%. However it did not make the breakthrough it had hoped for against the background of its ambitious and innovative policy programme of social, industrial and economic reform under the leadership of a reinvigorated Lloyd George
David Lloyd George
David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor OM, PC was a British Liberal politician and statesman...
. In this climate, and without a Labour
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
opponent in Denbigh, Morris-Jones was able to increase the Liberal majority from 1,421 to 8,189.
Parliamentary interests
While in Parliament, Morris-Jones took a particular interest in public healthPublic health
Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals" . It is concerned with threats to health based on population health...
and agriculture both nationally and as they affected Denbighshire. He was an honorary Treasurer of the Parliamentary Medical Group from time of election in 1929 and was later appointed as a member of the Committee of Trustees set up under the MPs Pensions Act. In 1938 he was a member of a Parliamentary delegation participating in events to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the founding of Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. While there he took part in discussions about the development of the Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
, measures to stimulate immigration to Australia and the promoting of Australian trade with the USA. More grimly, he was a member of a Parliamentary Delegation to Buchenwald concentration camp
Buchenwald concentration camp
Buchenwald concentration camp was a German Nazi concentration camp established on the Ettersberg near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937, one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps on German soil.Camp prisoners from all over Europe and Russia—Jews, non-Jewish Poles and Slovenes,...
soon after its liberation in April 1945.
National Liberal
In 1931 an economic crisis led to the formation of a National Government led by Labour prime minister Ramsay MacDonaldRamsay MacDonald
James Ramsay MacDonald, PC, FRS was a British politician who was the first ever Labour Prime Minister, leading a minority government for two terms....
and initially supported by the Conservative and Liberal parties. However the Liberals were increasingly divided over the issue of the National Government, particularly over the issue OF Free Trade
Free trade
Under a free trade policy, prices emerge from supply and demand, and are the sole determinant of resource allocation. 'Free' trade differs from other forms of trade policy where the allocation of goods and services among trading countries are determined by price strategies that may differ from...
. The official party led by Sir Herbert Samuel
Herbert Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel
Herbert Louis Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel GCB OM GBE PC was a British politician and diplomat.-Early years:...
although agreeing to go into the 1931 general 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...
supporting the government became more and more worried about the government’s stance on Free Trade and worried about the predominance of the Conservatives in the coalition. However a group of Liberal MPs led by Sir John Simon who were concerned to ensure the National Government had a wide cross-party base formed the Liberal National Party to more openly support MacDonald’s administration. Morris-Jones, who had been appalled at the economic record of the second Labour Government, joined this group and thereafter sat in the House of Commons as a Liberal National. At the 1931 general election, Morris-Jones was not opposed in Denbigh either by a Free Trade Liberal or Conservative candidate. Although bitterly opposed to MacDonald’s government, Labour did not stand a candidate either, presumably for tactical reasons. So on Friday 16 October Morris-Jones retained his Parliamentary seat as one of 65 MPs returned unopposed.
Liberal schism
After the 1931 general election there was a period of uncertainty in Liberal Associations about the development of separate parties in local areas and Liberals of the official and National persuasion were often regarded by local members as legitimate representatives of Liberalism, despite their formal designations. There was a belief in both camps that the split was nominal and temporary. As late as 1934 the Liberal Magazine was asserting that ‘the Liberal Nationals are bound in the course of time to reunite with the normal Liberal Party’. This was not the case everywhere however and in Denbigh Morris-Jones faced criticism and some hostility from Liberals not willing to accept his defection to the Liberal Nationals. This became more pressing after the withdrawal of the official party under Samuel from the government when Liberals argued that it had become increasingly clear that the coalition was a National Government in name only and really a ConservativeConservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
administration, dominated by the massive Conservative strength in Parliament.
Government office
In 1932, Morris-Jones was appointed an Assistant Government WhipWhip (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...
and he held that post until 1935. From 1935 to 1937 he was a Lord Commissioner of the Treasury. He was knighted in the prime minister’s list of the New Year’s Honours in January 1937. In May 1937 when 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...
succeeded Stanley Baldwin
Stanley Baldwin
Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, KG, PC was a British Conservative politician, who dominated the government in his country between the two world wars...
as prime minister, Morris-Jones was offered the position of Chief Whip to the Liberal National group after the formation of the new government but preferred ‘for personal reasons’ to return to the backbenches.
1935 General Election
As the prospect of another general election approached the Liberal Party policy of not opposing sitting Liberal National MPs came increasingly under threat, although many local parties did not have the resources to put up independent Liberal candidates against incumbent Liberal Nationals. However in Denbighshire there was a willingness to challenge Morris-Jones, who was seen more and more as a surrogate Tory. At a meeting of the Liberal Association there on 24 October 1935, as the prospect of a general election loomed, it was agreed to adopt John Cledwyn Davies, the Director of Education for Denbighshire and the Lloyd George coalition Liberal MP for Denbigh from 1922-23. Morris-Jones refused to stand down and the two members of the liberal family fought each other in the general electionUnited 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...
in November. The Conservatives supported Morris-Jones and the intervention of a Labour candidate helped take votes away from Davies. Across the country the Liberal National vote remained steady and Morris-Jones held the seat with a majority of over 5,000.
Independent MP
For brief period during the Second World War, commencing in February 1942, Morris-Jones decided to leave the Liberal Nationals. One of his reasons for resigning from the Liberal Nationals may have been a desire to have the freedom to criticise the government over its prosecution of the war, including the need to place war production under the direction of a single minister which Morris-Jones had urged in 1941. In July 1942 he was signatory to a motion which while praising the armed forces indicated a lack of confidence in the government’s conduct of the war. It was later recorded that he had rejoined the official Liberals along with two other MPs, Leslie Hore-BelishaLeslie Hore-Belisha, 1st Baron Hore-Belisha
Isaac Leslie Hore-Belisha, 1st Baron Hore-Belisha PC was a British Liberal, then National Liberal Member of Parliament and Cabinet Minister. He later joined the Conservative Party...
and Edgar Granville. However at the time Morris-Jones described himself as having become an Independent although his closeness to the official party was evident in his voting record and associations. Perhaps he was already thinking about post-war political alignments and wished to keep his options open. He must have been aware of the feeling that, as in the earlier split in the party between 1916 and 1923, Liberals of whatever stripe had a common Liberalism to bind them. In the end the political and electoral realities overcame the sense of Liberal family and Morris-Jones rejoined the Liberal Nationals in March 1943, presumably sensing or calculating it would be the safest way to enable him to continue as an MP.
Welsh political and public life
In 1937 Morris-Jones was Honorary Treasurer and Honorary Secretary of the Reception Committee co-ordinating the Royal Visit to North Wales. As part of the coronation celebrations the King and Queen were to visit North Wales in July 1937. They were to open an extension to the National Library of WalesNational Library of Wales
The National Library of Wales , Aberystwyth, is the national legal deposit library of Wales; one of the Welsh Government sponsored bodies.Welsh is its main medium of communication...
at Aberystwyth
Aberystwyth
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....
and make a ceremonial visit to Caernarfon Castle
Caernarfon Castle
Caernarfon Castle is a medieval building in Gwynedd, north-west Wales. There was a motte-and-bailey castle in the town of Caernarfon from the late 11th century until 1283 when King Edward I of England began replacing it with the current stone structure...
. At this time Lloyd George was Constable of the Caernarfon Castle and Morris-Jones was involved in discussion and debate with him and others about the arrangements for the visit and some bad-tempered exchanges took place over the choice of music for the royal programme which Lloyd George felt was not up to the dignity of the occasion.
In 1941-2, Morris-Jones served as Chairman of the Welsh Parliamentary Party. Liberal MPs from Wales had always regarded themselves as separate Parliamentary entity, certainly from as early as 1886. They saw their role as promoting distinctly Welsh causes and being the party of Welsh nationalism. This role diminished with the decline of Liberalism in Wales during the 20th century and establishment of Plaid Cymru
Plaid Cymru
' is a political party in Wales. It advocates the establishment of an independent Welsh state within the European Union. was formed in 1925 and won its first seat in 1966...
in 1925 but there remained a sentiment at Westminster that Welsh parliamentarians should meet together in the interests of their country and the Welsh Parliamentary Party which Morris-Jones chaired was therefore an informal group of Welsh MPs from all parties which met occasionally from the mid-1930s to discuss issues affecting Wales and its relationship with Whitehall and Westminster.
In 1949 Morris-Jones put forward a Private Member's Bill
Private Member's Bill
A member of parliament’s legislative motion, called a private member's bill or a member's bill in some parliaments, is a proposed law introduced by a member of a legislature. In most countries with a parliamentary system, most bills are proposed by the government, not by individual members of the...
to create the post of Secretary of State for Wales and Monmouthshire
Secretary of State for Wales
The Secretary of State for Wales is the head of the Wales Office within the British cabinet. He or she is responsible for ensuring Welsh interests are taken into account by the government, representing the government within Wales and overseeing the passing of legislation which is only for Wales...
supported by a Parliamentary Under Secretary and a Department of State to be known as the Welsh Office for which he got a measure of cross-party support although it did not pass into law. Wales had to wait until 1951 for a dedicated minister, 1964 for its own Secretary of State and 1965 before the establishment of the Welsh Office
Welsh Office
The Welsh Office was a department in the Government of the United Kingdom with responsibilities for Wales. It was established in April 1965 to execute government policy in Wales, and was headed by the Secretary of State for Wales, a post which had been created in October 1964...
. The National Assembly for Wales
National Assembly for Wales
The National Assembly for Wales is a devolved assembly with power to make legislation in Wales. The Assembly comprises 60 members, who are known as Assembly Members, or AMs...
and the Welsh Assembly Government
Welsh Assembly Government
The Welsh Government is the devolved government of Wales. It is accountable to the National Assembly for Wales, the legislature which represents the interests of the people of Wales and makes laws for Wales...
followed in 1999.
Morris-Jones was also a member of the Gorsedd
Gorsedd
A gorsedd plural gorseddau, is a community or coming together of modern-day bards. The word is of Welsh origin, meaning "throne". It is occasionally spelled gorsedh , or goursez in Brittany....
, an association of poets, writers, musicians, artists and individuals who have made a significant and distinguished contribution to Welsh language, literature, and culture, under the Bardic title of Rhoslanydd. He also served as a member of the Governing Body of Representative Body of the Church in Wales between 1950 and 1962.
Liberal National after 1945
At the 1945 general electionUnited 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...
Morris-Jones faced official Liberal and Labour opposition in Denbigh but was supported as the government candidate by the Conservatives. In a straight fight against either Liberal or Labour he might well have lost, given the huge anti-government swings recorded at that election. However with the opposition split, he held on with a majority of 4,922. Although he stood down as an MP at the 1950 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1950
The 1950 United Kingdom general election was the first general election ever after a full term of a Labour government. Despite polling over one and a half million votes more than the Conservatives, the election, held on 23 February 1950 resulted in Labour receiving a slim majority of just five...
, Morris-Jones thereafter remained loyal to the Liberal Nationals, or National Liberal Party as it became known after 1948. He served as Vice Chairman of the Executive of the National Liberal Party in 1952 and the following year (1953–54) he went on to be Chairman. The National Liberals again held Denbigh against split opposition in 1950, albeit with a reduced majority. It remained a National Liberal seat until 1959
United Kingdom general election, 1959
This United Kingdom general election was held on 8 October 1959. It marked a third successive victory for the ruling Conservative Party, led by Harold Macmillan...
when a Conservative candidate was put up, successfully retaining it. It then stayed Conservative until the constituency was abolished in 1983.
Standing down from Parliament
Although he was 66 years old as the election approached, Morris-Jones’ decision to step down from Parliament at the 1950 general election may have been influenced by more than just advancing years. He was genuinely pessimistic about the future of the Liberal Party in Wales and the country at large. In a speech in Denbigh he said he doubted there would be more than 20 Independent Liberals in the next House of Commons. This is a slightly surprising number given that only 12 Liberal MPs had been elected in 1945, a drop of nine on the previous election and since then the party had been experiencing defections – Gwilym Lloyd-George was almost completely associated with the Conservatives by 1950 and Tom HorabinTom Horabin
Thomas Lewis Horabin was a British Liberal Party politician who defected to the Labour Party. He sat in the House of Commons from 1939 to 1950.- Early life :Horabin was born in Merthyr Tydfil...
had taken the Labour whip. In fact the party continued to decline at the 1950 general election, making a net loss of three seats leaving then with only nine. Perhaps Morris-Jones also foresaw the final absorption of the National Liberals into the Conservative Party. The formal merger of the two parties had already taken place in 1948 and from then on, it was only a matter of time before any remaining genuinely Liberal element was subsumed by the overwhelming numbers and philosophy of the Conservatives, something which given his Liberal past and strong convictions, Morris-Jones may well have regretted. Although, as noted above, once outside Parliament he stuck with the National Liberals, perhaps in the hope of a peerage.
Morris-Jones and the National Health Service
As a doctor, Morris-Jones took a keen interest in the legislation to set up the National Health ServiceNational Health Service
The National Health Service is the shared name of three of the four publicly funded healthcare systems in the United Kingdom. They provide a comprehensive range of health services, the vast majority of which are free at the point of use to residents of the United Kingdom...
(NHS). By and large he was not in favour, usually taking the side of the professional organisations in opposing measures to force doctors into the NHS. By 1948 he was much more closely aligned with the Conservatives and their thinking. That Morris-Jones was a man of traditional views in relation to medical matters can be deduced from his association with the campaign to prevent the sale of contraceptives from slot machines, as a ‘temptation to youth’.
An early indication of Morris-Jones’s misgivings over a national health scheme came in 1942 in the debate over the Beveridge Report. In a letter to The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
newspaper he predicted that the setting up of a full-time National Medical Service for the whole population would cut across the traditional relationship between the doctor and patient and would need a great popular mandate. The tone of Morris-Jones’s letter made it clear he did not approve of such a scheme and doubted whether it would ever work. Writing again to the Times on 15 March 1948, Morris-Jones identified with the concerns of many doctors about the powers to be conferred on the Minister of Health
Secretary of State for Health
Secretary of State for Health is a UK cabinet position responsible for the Department of Health.The first Boards of Health were created by Orders in Council dated 21 June, 14 November, and 21 November 1831. In 1848 a General Board of Health was created with the First Commissioner of Woods and...
and with the doctors’ strong desire to retain their professional freedoms and their livelihoods as well as their fears that the new arrangements would bring about a deterioration in standards of medical and clinical service and professionalism. He ended by writing, “The mines can be nationalised; the art and science of medicine cannot be”. However, like the doctors, Morris-Jones eventually bowed to the inevitable. Even though there were many doctors who disliked the Act, Morris-Jones felt they had achieved a significant amount though negotiation and should therefore accept the government’s offer to join the NHS in July 1948. A further justification he made was that this should be done on behalf of patients who would otherwise suffer from a continuing fight between government and medical professionals.
A year after the introduction of the NHS, Morris-Jones was again writing to the Times to highlight what he saw as the decline in status of the General Practitioner, which he described as’ the first line of defence of our health service’. He believed that there was evidence to show that after a year of the NHS there had been a deterioration in the art of medicine as practiced by GPs, an expansion of their workload, an increase in bureaucracy, difficulties in seeing cases through and getting patients into hospitals.
Publications
- Surgical Experiences at Wimereux, France (jointly with Hugh Lett): British Medical Journal, 1915
- Doctor in the Whip’s Room: published by Robert Hale, London, 1955
Papers
Morris-Jones’ papers are deposited in the Flintshire Record Office, which is located at The Old Rectory, HawardenHawarden
Hawarden is a village in Flintshire, North Wales. Hawarden forms part of the Deeside conurbation on the Welsh/English border. At the 2001 Census, the population of Hawarden Ward was 1,858...
. The collection consists of papers between 1896 and 1965, including diaries, 1911–1918, 1925–1944; pocket diaries, 1912–1962; personal notebooks, 1950–1962; letters, 1923–1963, mainly from fellow MPs; parliamentary papers, 1941–1949 and 1963; miscellaneous papers, 1906–1965; papers relating to a parliamentary delegation to Buchenwald concentration camp, 1945; notes on his ancestors, 1896–1945; press cuttings and photographs relating to his career, 1927–1960; and copies, typescripts and material relating to his publications, including Doctor in the Whips' Room, 1915-1960.
Other sources
- For information about St Mungo’s College of Medicine, Glasgow, see http://www.gashe.ac.uk:443/isaar/C1047.htm
- For information about the Worcestershire Regiment, see http://www.1914-1918.net/worcester.htm
- For information about Lady Frances Hadfield CBECBECBE and C.B.E. are abbreviations for "Commander of the Order of the British Empire", a grade in the Order of the British Empire.Other uses include:* Chemical and Biochemical Engineering...
and her hospital at Wimereux, 1914–18, see http://www.rsc.org/delivery/_ArticleLinking/DisplayArticleForFree.cfm?doi=JR9410000053&JournalCode=JR - David Dutton, A Stepping-Stone for Wavering Radicals': Conservatives, National Liberals and Denbighshire Politics 1947-64 Contemporary British History, Volume 2, Issue 1, March 2008
- David Dutton, Liberals in Schism: A History of the National Liberal Party; Tauris Academic Studies, London & New York, 2008