Ellis Ellis-Griffith
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Sir Ellis Jones Ellis-Griffith, 1st Baronet PC KC (23 May 1860 – 30 November 1926), was a British barrister and radical[1] Liberal politician. He was born Ellis Jones Griffith.
Family and education
Born in Birmingham, Griffith was the son of Thomas Morris Griffith, a master builder. He was educated at University College, Aberystwyth, the University of London and Downing College, Cambridge, where he read law and was President of the Cambridge Union.[2] Ellis-Griffith married Mary, daughter of Robert Owen, in 1892. They had two sons and one daughter.
Legal career
He was called to the Bar, Middle Temple, in 1887 and worked on the North Wales and Chester Circuit. He was a Recorder of Birkenhead from 1907 to 1912 and was appointed a King's Counsel in 1910.
Political career
Griffith unsuccessfully contested West Toxteth in 1892 but in 1895 was successfully returned to Parliament for Anglesey. He was returned unopposed in 1900.
Upon his appointment as Recorder of Birkenhead in 1907 he was required to re-submit himself to his electorate at Anglesey and was returned unopposed. Whilst an MP he voted in favour of the 1908 Women's Enfranchisement Bill.[3] He was returned unopposed in December 1910. He served in the Liberal administration of H. H. Asquith as Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department from 1912 to 1915, in which position he played an important role in steering the Welsh Disestablishment Bill through the House of Commons, and was sworn of the Privy Council in 1914. In 1918 he was created a baronet, of Llanindan in the County of Anglesey and changed his surname to Ellis-Griffith.
He was narrowly defeated at Anglesey in the 1918 general election by the Labour candidate Owen Thomas. He then unsuccessfully contested the University of Wales constituency in 1922.
He returned to the House of Commons in 1923, when he was elected for Carmarthen, but resigned the seat the following year.
He died in Swansea suddenly in November 1926, aged 66, and was succeeded in the baronetcy by his only surviving son Ellis. Lady Ellis-Griffith died in 1941.
Election results
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Liberal | Ellis Jones Griffith | 4,224 | 56.9 | ||
Conservative | J R Roberts | 3,197 | 43.1 | ||
Majority | 1,027 | 13.8 | |||
Turnout | 74.3 | ||||
Liberal hold | Swing |
He was returned unopposed in 1900.
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Liberal | Ellis Jones Griffith | 5,356 | 67.0 | n/a | |
Conservative | C F Priestley | 2,638 | 33.0 | n/a | |
Majority | 2,718 | 34.0 | n/a | ||
Turnout | 79.9 | n/a | |||
Liberal hold | Swing | n/a |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Liberal | Ellis Jones Griffith | 5,888 | 70.7 | ||
Conservative | Richard Owen Roberts | 2,436 | 29.3 | ||
Majority | 3,452 | 41.4 | |||
Turnout | 80.5 | ||||
Liberal hold | Swing |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Labour | Sir Owen Thomas | 9,038 | 50.4 | ||
National Liberal | Rt Hon. Sir Ellis Jones Ellis-Griffith | 8.898 | 49.6 | ||
Majority | 140 | 0.8 | |||
Turnout | 69.4 | ||||
Labour gain from Liberal | Swing |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
National Liberal | Thomas Arthur Lewis | 487 | 39.5 | − 41.3 | |
Liberal | Rt Hon. Sir Ellis Jones Ellis-Griffith | 451 | 35.9 | N/A | |
Labour | Dr Olive Annie Wheeler | 309 | 24.8 | +5.6 | |
Majority | 46 | 3.6 | −58.0 | ||
Turnout | 1,247 | 87.2 | +1.4 | ||
National Liberal hold | Swing | N/A |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Liberal | Rt Hon Sir Ellis Jones Ellis-Griffith | 12,988 | |||
Unionist | Sir Alfred Stephens | 8,677 | |||
Labour | R. Williams | 7,132 | |||
Majority | 4,311 | ||||
Turnout | |||||
Liberal hold | Swing |
References
- ^ https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=2XWGuS25msYC&pg=PA307&dq=Ellis+Ellis-Griffith+radical+liberal&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CDEQ6AEwA2oVChMI05GwqueFyAIV4nHbCh3vWQQu#v=onepage&q=Ellis%20Ellis-Griffith%20radical%20liberal&f=false
- ^ "Griffith (post Ellis-Griffith), Ellis Jones (GRFT880EJ)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- ^ http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1908/feb/28/womens-enfranchisement-bill-1
External links
- Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Sir Ellis Ellis-Griffith
- Monument to Sir Ellis Ellis-Griffith, 1st Baronet, at Brynsiencyn Church
- Portraits of Sir Ellis Ellis-Griffith at the National Portrait Gallery, London
- Use dmy dates from January 2012
- 1860 births
- 1926 deaths
- People from Blaenau Ffestiniog
- Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom
- Alumni of Aberystwyth University
- Alumni of the University of London
- Alumni of Downing College, Cambridge
- Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Welsh constituencies
- UK MPs 1895–1900
- UK MPs 1900–06
- UK MPs 1906–10
- UK MPs 1910–18
- UK MPs 1923–24
- Liberal Party (UK) MPs
- Welsh barristers
- Members of the Inner Temple