Huw T. Edwards

Monument to Huw T Edwards at Ro-wen

Huw Thomas Edwards (19 November 1892 – 8 November 1970) was a Welsh trade union leader and politician.

Edwards was a trade unionist who was, for many years, the most influential figure in the Labour Party in north Wales. He was appointed the first chair of the Council for Wales and Monmouthshire in 1949. He was in favour of a Welsh Parliament but initially did not support the Parliament for Wales campaign in the early 1950s although later he did join the campaign. He opposed the decision to flood the Tryweryn valley to create a reservoir to service Liverpool. In 1956 he bought the Welsh-language periodical, Y Faner, in order to save it from liquidation. In 1958 he resigned from the Council for Wales and in 1959 he left the Labour Party to join Plaid Cymru although he returned to the Labour fold in 1965. He was the first President of the Welsh Language Society.

He published two autobiographical volumes in his native Welsh, Tros y Tresi (1956) and Troi'r Drol (1963). He was also a poet.

Bibliography

A biography of Huw T Edwards was published in 2007: *Gwyn Jenkins: Prif Weinidog Answyddogol Cymru; cofiant Huw T Edwards (Y Lolfa, 2007) Another, in English, was published in 2011: Paul Ward, Huw T. Edwards: British Labour and Welsh Socialism (University of Wales Press, 2011)