David Rees-Williams, 1st Baron Ogmore

2025-08-22T17:23:01Z

2003:D3:FF01:8934:AA7B:7204:E94B:EBD0: /* Career */Unreferenced and non-notable here

{{Short description|British politician}}

{{EngvarB|date=November 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2017}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix = [[The Right Honourable]]
|birthname=David Rees Rees-Williams
| name= The Lord Ogmore
| honorific-suffix = [[Privy Council (United Kingdom)|PC]]
| image=Lord Ogmore.jpg
| caption=Rees-Williams in 1947
| country=United Kingdom
| birth_date ={{birth date|df=yes|1903|11|22}}
| birth_place = [[Bridgend, Wales|Bridgend]], Wales
| death_date ={{death date and age|df=yes|1976|8|30|1903|11|22}}
| death_place =
| office = Member of Parliament for [[Croydon South (historic UK Parliament constituency)|Croydon South]]
| term_start =5 July 1945
| term_end=3 February 1950
| predecessor =[[Sir Herbert Williams, 1st Baronet|Herbert Williams]]
| successor =Constituency abolished
| spouse= Constance Wills
| children=3
| party=[[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] (until 1959)<br />[[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]] (1959–1976)
}}
'''David Rees Rees-Williams, 1st Baron Ogmore''', [[Privy Council (United Kingdom)|PC]], [[Territorial Decoration|TD]] (22 November 1903 – 30 August 1976) was a British politician.

==Career==
Rees-Williams was born in [[Bridgend, Wales|Bridgend]], Wales, the son of William Rees Williams,<ref>Per Burke's Peerage 2003 vol. 2 p. 2988, William was son of George Williams and Elvira Rees; David Rees-Williams was the first to use both names as a hyphenated surname.</ref> of Garth-celyn, Bridgend, and Jennet, daughter of Morgan David, of Bridgend. William Rees Williams was a veterinary surgeon, and had served as a captain in the [[Royal Army Veterinary Corps]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://biography.wales/article/s8-WILL-REE-1903 | title=WILLIAMS, DAVID REES (Later REES-WILLIAMS, DAVID REES), 1st BARON OGMORE (1903-1976), politician and lawyer | Dictionary of Welsh Biography }}</ref><ref>Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 107th edition, vol. 2, ed. Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage Ltd, 2003, p. 2988</ref> He qualified as a solicitor in 1929. Commissioned into the 6th ([[Territorial Army (United Kingdom)|Territorial Army]]) Battalion, [[Welch Regiment]], he was promoted [[Captain (British Army and Royal Marines)|Captain]] in 1936 and Major in 1938, by which time his battalion had become a [[searchlight]] unit. He transferred to the [[Royal Artillery]] in 1940, when all searchlight units did so, and ended the [[Second World War]] as a [[Lieutenant-Colonel]].

Rees-Williams was elected [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] Member of Parliament for [[Croydon South (historic UK Parliament constituency)|Croydon South]] in 1945, defeating the incumbent MP, Sir [[Sir Herbert Williams, 1st Baronet|Herbert Williams]]. In the government he was a minister in the [[Colonial Office]], travelling to East Asia to consider the movements towards independence. His seat was redistributed at the end of the Parliament and he narrowly lost the successor seat at the [[1950 United Kingdom general election|1950 general election]] and was raised to the peerage as '''Baron Ogmore''', of [[Bridgend]] in the [[County of Glamorgan]], on [[1950 Birthday Honours|10 July 1950]].<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=38968 |date=14 July 1950 |page=3622}}</ref> He served as Minister of Civil Aviation in 1951 and was made a [[Privy Councillor]] the same year. Lord Ogmore was President of the London Welsh Trust, which ran the [[London Welsh Centre]], [[Gray's Inn Road]], from 1955 until 1959.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.londonwelsh.org/archives/1796 |title=Our Former Presidents: London Welsh Centre |work=[[London Welsh Centre]] website |publisher=[[London Welsh Centre]] |year=2010 |access-date=4 February 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720025944/http://www.londonwelsh.org/archives/1796 |archive-date=20 July 2011 }}</ref>

Lord Ogmore joined the [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal Party]] in 1959 and served as [[President of the Liberal Party|Liberal Party President]], 1963–1964.

==Personal life==
In 1930, Lord Ogmore married (Alice Alexandra) Constance, daughter of Walter Robert Wills, Lord Mayor of Cardiff from 1945 to 1946.<ref name="google">{{cite book|title=The international who's who|author=Europa Publications Limited|date=1974|publisher=Europa Publications|isbn=9780900362729|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wsnwF5v_RO0C|access-date=20 May 2015}}</ref> He had three children. His daughter, Elizabeth Rees-Williams, married the actors [[Richard Harris]] and [[Rex Harrison|Sir Rex Harrison]], the businessman Peter Aitken, and more recently [[Jonathan Aitken]], the former [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Conservative MP]]. His grandsons are actors [[Jared Harris]] and [[Jamie Harris (actor)|Jamie Harris]] and director [[Damian Harris]].<ref>Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 107th edition, vol. 2, ed. Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage Ltd, 2003, p. 2988</ref><ref>Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 106th edition, ed. Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage Ltd, 1999, vol. 1, p. 231</ref>

==Honours==
{{Infobox COA wide
|image = Ogmore Achievement.png
|escutcheon = Azure two bars wavy Argent on a chief arched of the second between as many hurts each charged with a quatrefoil Or a hurt thereon a sun in splendour of the third.
|crest = A tiger’s head couped Proper charged on the neck with three chevronels couped Gules.
|supporters = Dexter a tiger Proper charged on the shoulder with three chevronels couped Gules, sinister a horse Argent.
|motto = Ffyddlon Hyd Angau (Faithful Unto Death) <ref>{{cite book|title=Debrett's Peerage |date=1985}}</ref>
}}

===Foreign honour===

* {{flag|Myanmar}} :
**[[File:Agga Maha Thray Sithu.svg|50px]] Agga-Maha-Thayay-Sithu of the [[Pyidaungsu Sithu Thingaha|Order of the Pyidaungsu Sithu Thingaha]] (1956)
* {{flag|Malaya}} :
**[[File:MY_Darjah_Yang_Mulia_Pangkuan_Negara_(Defender_of_the_Realm)-_PMN.svg|50px]] Honorary Commander of the [[Order of the Defender of the Realm]] (P.M.N. (K)) - '''Tan Sri''' (1959)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.istiadat.gov.my/v8/images/stories/1959.pdf|title=Senarai Penuh Penerima Darjah Kebesaran, Bintang dan Pingat Persekutuan Tahun 1959.|access-date=18 June 2016|archive-date=14 February 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190214234731/http://www.istiadat.gov.my/v8/images/stories/1959.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
*{{Hansard-contribs | lieut-colonel-david-rees-williams | David Rees-Williams }}
*{{npg name|id=75920 | name=David Rees-Williams, 1st Baron Ogmore}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-par|uk}}
{{s-bef| before = [[Sir Herbert Williams, 1st Baronet|Herbert Williams]]}}
{{s-ttl| title = Member of Parliament for [[Croydon South (historic UK Parliament constituency)|Croydon South]]
| years = [[1945 United Kingdom general election|1945]]–[[1950 United Kingdom general election|1950]]}}
{{s-non| reason = Constituency abolished}}
{{s-off}}
{{succession box
| title=[[Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies]]
| before=[[Ivor Bulmer-Thomas]]
| after=[[Thomas Fotheringham-Cook]]
| years=1947–1950
}}
{{s-bef| before = [[Frank Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford|The Lord Pakenham]]}}
{{s-ttl| title = [[Secretary of State for Transport|Minister of Civil Aviation]]
| years = 1951}}
{{s-aft| after = [[John Maclay, 1st Viscount Muirshiel|John Maclay]]}}
{{s-ppo}}
{{succession box|title=[[President of the Liberal Party (UK)|President of the Liberal Party]]|years=1963–1964 |before=[[Felix Brunner]]|after=[[Roger Fulford]]}}
{{succession box|title=President of the [[Welsh Liberal Party]]|years=?–1970 |before=?|after=[[Rhys Lloyd, Baron Lloyd of Kilgerran|Rhys Lloyd]]}}
{{s-reg|uk}}
{{s-new|creation}}
{{s-ttl| title = [[Baron Ogmore]]
| years = 1950–1976}}
{{s-aft| after = [[Gwilym Rees Rees-Williams, 2nd Baron Ogmore|Gwilym Rees Rees-Williams]]}}
{{s-end}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rees-Williams, David}}
[[Category:1903 births]]
[[Category:1976 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century British lawyers]]
[[Category:British Army personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies]]
[[Category:Labour Party (UK) hereditary peers]]
[[Category:Liberal Party (UK) hereditary peers]]
[[Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Ministers in the Attlee governments, 1945–1951]]
[[Category:People from Bridgend]]
[[Category:Politics of the London Borough of Croydon]]
[[Category:Presidents of the Liberal Party (UK)]]
[[Category:Royal Artillery officers]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1945–1950]]
[[Category:UK MPs who were granted peerages]]
[[Category:Welch Regiment officers]]
[[Category:Welsh solicitors]]
[[Category:Barons created by George VI]]

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David Rees-Williams, 1st Baron Ogmore