The Six Point Group was a British feminist campaign group founded by Lady Rhondda in 1921 to press for changes in the law of the United Kingdom in six areas.
71-489: The six original specific aims were: These later evolved into six general points of equality for women: political, occupational, moral, social, economic and legal. The group was founded by Lady Rhondda in 1921 to press for changes in the law of the United Kingdom in six areas. The secretary from 1921 to 1926 was the actor-director and ex-suffragette Winifred Mayo . During the 1920s, it was active in trying to have
142-526: A Stockbroker's Office in Cornhill . There he had an attack of rheumatic fever, a complaint which had plagued him since his youth. After the death of Mr. Riches, he returned to Cardiff to manage the Cambrian Collieries. Not long after inheriting his father's business, Thomas assessed the state of the company. To expand the business, D. A. Thomas converted the company from private ownership into
213-429: A Watching Group to monitor progress. Rhondda wanted more than a few token women on committees, and was especially concerned that the importance of maternity and infant welfare should be recognised. In the event, the government's new Ministry of Health Act 1919 created a Consultative Council on General Health Questions which had a majority of women members and which was chaired by Rhondda herself. In 1919 Rhondda founded
284-410: A break from his business activities. He became director of the company that acquired The Cambrian News newspaper in 1915. In 1887, a year before his election to Parliament, Thomas took the lease of Llanwern House, at Llanwern , just outside Newport , Monmouthshire , where he lived the life of a somewhat unconventional country squire, riding to hounds and breeding prize Hereford cattle . He bought
355-517: A contrast to the sometimes miserly, always prudent Samuel. She gave young David the love that he needed, nurturing the more sensitive side that D. A. Thomas' daughter, Margaret, was to cherish. The family home, Ysguborwen, seems to have been a fairly typical Welsh home. At first, only the Welsh language was spoken there. After all, it was the language of both of David's parents. However, Mrs. Thomas, like many Welsh parents before and since, realising that
426-532: A deputation to the Home Secretary asking him to repeal the Factory and Workshop Act 1901 which prevented women taking well-paid jobs in mining and other industries. Aside from inheriting her father's publishing interests, Rhondda had founded in 1920 Time and Tide magazine, at first a left-wing feminist weekly magazine, but later a more rightist general literary journal. She was the long-time editor of
497-624: A great deal for the collieries' shareholders. In 1910, D. A. Thomas was involved in a coal strike begun at the Ely Pit in Penygraig, an action that infuriated him. He saw the strike as a betrayal, and his actions at attempting to break the strike turned into one of the most important and violent events in Rhondda history, the Tonypandy riots . From 1901 to 1906, ill-health forced Thomas to take
568-412: A limited liability company, securing the capital to expand operations. The sale of shares was not a means for the heir to become an idler, for D. A. Thomas continued to take an active part in the management for the company. In the great coal strike of 1898, D. A. Thomas refused to take the side of the coal-owners' organisation. The Cambrian Collieries continued to work through the strike, an action that made
639-704: A link between businesses and professional women for their mutual benefit and to work towards the admission of women to the British Chambers of Commerce . She was elected as the Institute of Directors ' first female president in 1926, having been a member of its Council since 1923. In 2015 the Institute launched the annual Mackworth Lecture in her honour. In 1918 Rhondda lobbied for the government's proposed Ministry of Health to have women properly represented by an all-woman advisory council, and she formed
710-513: A medal in the long-dive, stood him in good stead. Thomas joined Osborn Henry Riches in the sales department of the Cambrian Collieries , later moving to Clydach Vale to learn the management of the mines themselves. In the course of this work, which went on for more than a year, he descended the pit with the workers and remained underground until four in the afternoon. David Alfred Thomas moved to London in 1882, where he worked in
781-501: A number of issues. Its secretary in the 1970s was Hazel Hunkins Hallinan . From the late 1970s the group declined through its failure to recruit younger women. It went into abeyance in 1980, and was finally dissolved in 1983. The archives of Six Point Group are held at The Women's Library which is based at London School fo Economics . Margaret Mackworth, 2nd Viscountess Rhondda Margaret Haig Mackworth, 2nd Viscountess Rhondda ( née Thomas ; 12 June 1883 – 20 July 1958)
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#1732791571339852-587: A passionate activist for women's rights. An only child, she was raised at Llanwern House, at Llanwern near Newport , until the age of 13, when she went away to boarding school , first to Notting Hill High School then St Leonards School , in St Andrews . In 1904, aged 19, she took up a place at Somerville College, Oxford , where she studied history. Despite her tutors providing positive feedback on her academic progress, she returned to Llanwern to live with her family after two terms. Working for her father at
923-429: A political failure. Certainly, his early promise had not been vindicated. In many ways Thomas was not suited to party politics and he was described by Stuart Rendel as 'a Tory in disguise. His greatest political success came later, during the wartime coalition (see below). After D. A. Thomas' expectations of high office were disappointed following the 1906 General Election he concentrated once more on business. In 1908
994-464: A population basis, which alienated many of the North Wales MPs. The Rev. J. Vyrnwy Morgan , Thomas' earliest biographer writes that: '...religion was a subject concerning which he spoke less than he thought.' Despite attacks of rheumatic fever , which plagued him for much of his life, D. A. Thomas was no shrinking violet. At college, he rowed and boxed enthusiastically, and his obituary in
1065-541: A scholarship to Gonville and Caius College , Cambridge, where he studied mathematics, and would have finished top of his year, if it had not been for his indifferent health. Even so, Thomas was in the University Rowing and Boxing teams. Thomas left Cambridge in 1880, on the death of his father. In an age of religion, D. A. Thomas was that rarity, a man honestly uninterested in religion. That said, Thomas does not appear to have been an atheist, but to have found
1136-486: A schoolboy at Bristol D. A. Thomas attended Highbury Congregational Chapel, Clifton, where his uncle, David Thomas, was minister. Although D. A. Thomas was heavily involved in the Disestablishment controversy and was an advocate of Disestablishment, this appears to have sprung from the belief that the endowments of the church should be used for the general good He advocated the allocation of church endowments on
1207-583: Is by far the largest – "on a recent visit to Llanwern, it took me two circuits of the churchyard to find the tomb, since I had initially mistaken it for the War memorial", in the words of one D. A. Thomas Scholar), his wife and daughter. His epitaph reads, 'He counted his life not dear to himself.' While the Rhondda Barony died with him, the title of Viscount Rhondda passed to his daughter Margaret by special remainder, something Thomas had insisted on when he
1278-478: Is unlikely, given that the family home, Ysguborwen (also in Aberdare), was completed in 1855. This house was built as a suitable residence for a rising industrial entrepreneur, and sets Samuel Thomas' gloomy remark in context. Samuel Thomas was one of the pioneers of the Welsh coal business . Samuel Thomas was a hard man, perhaps the secret of his business success, and his tastes were simple. He could never forget
1349-602: The South Wales Daily News spoke of him being seldom happier than 'when romping with children.' In 1881, D. A. Thomas rescued a boy who fell through the ice on Hirwaun Pond, Aberdare, an act for which he received an award from the Humane Society . In this, and in his later survival of the wreck of the Lusitania , D. A. Thomas' prowess in swimming, another college sport in which he excelled, holding
1420-478: The First World War , he was very successful, introducing an efficient system of rationing . The work took a terrible toll on his constitution, however, and he died at Llanwern on the morning of Wednesday, 3 July 1918, aged 62. He was cremated at Golders Green , but his ashes were returned to Llanwern , where they lie alongside the bodies of previous squires of Llanwern (although D. A. Thomas' monument
1491-814: The League of Nations pass an Equal Rights Treaty. The group campaigned on principles of strict equality between men and women. This 'old feminism' or 'equality feminism' was sometimes contrasted to the 'new feminism' or 'welfare feminism' of other women's groups of the period, such as the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship , which sought protectionist legislation applying only to women. Members included former militant suffragists - such as Dorothy Evans , Florence Macfarlane , Monica Whately , Helen Archdale , Charlotte Marsh , Theresa Garnett and Stella Newsome - as well as younger women like Winifred Holtby , Vera Brittain and Caroline Haslett . Though
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#17327915713391562-819: The Open Door Council , it spearheaded the movement for the right of married women to work. It was responsible for establishing the Income Tax Reform Council and in 1938, the Married Women's Association . During the Second World War , the Six Point Group campaigned on a variety of issues. They protested about the fact that female volunteers in the Civil Defence Services received only two-thirds
1633-517: The RMS Lusitania with her father and his secretary, Arnold Rhys-Evans, when it was torpedoed at 14:10 by German submarine U-20 . Her father and his secretary made it onto a lifeboat since they had been blown overboard, but she spent a long period in clinging to a piece of board before she was rescued by the Irish trawler "Bluebell", as recalled in her 1933 autobiography, This Was My World . By
1704-649: The Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act 1928 finally gave women over twenty-one the vote on the same terms as men. A Canadian steamship, the Lady Mackworth , was named after her. In 1908 she married Humphrey Mackworth , who later inherited his father's baronetcy . They divorced in December 1922. She never remarried. She lived with Time and Tide magazine editor Helen Archdale in
1775-496: The Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 and which Rhondda believed to be easily understandable and attainable. They had all been considered and debated publicly, and some could be achieved without the need for parliamentary legislation. Rhondda argued, for example, that if the government stopped dismissing women civil servants when they married, local authorities would probably follow suit. The Representation of
1846-575: The Women’s Industrial League with the aim of seeking equal training and employment opportunities for women in industry, and to resist a return to pre-war conditions which largely designated women's labour as unskilled with low pay and poor prospects. She was particularly concerned that the Ministry of Labour seemed to recognise only three forms of work for women – tailoring, laundry and domestic service. The Women's Industrial League publicised
1917-755: The plinth of the statue of Millicent Fawcett in Parliament Square , London, unveiled in 2018. Lady Rhondda was one of five women shortlisted in 2019 to be portrayed in the first statue of a woman to be erected in Cardiff . Subsequently, the Monumental Welsh Women campaign aimed to erect statues in Wales of all five women. Statues depicting Betty Campbell , Elaine Morgan and Cranogwen have since been unveiled, with one for Elizabeth Andrews planned for 2025. The Lady Rhondda statue
1988-836: The Cambrian Combine was formed, with the merger of the Glamorgan, the Naval and the Britannic Merthyr collieries with the Cambrian Collieries. This great industrial combine would later take in further collieries. As Thomas came to realise that the golden age of the Welsh coal trade would not continue. Thomas sought to organise the Welsh coal trade to prevent destructive competition. In the pre-war years Thomas acquired tracts of coal-bearing land in North America which
2059-569: The Civil Service. The group continued to have significant political influence in the post war period. It took part in the protests to have the Matrimonial Proceedings and Property Act changed to give married women more financial protection. Hazel Hunkins Hallinan took over as chair in 1950s, having joined the organisation in 1922. From 1967, the group played an active part in the co-ordination of other women's groups on
2130-675: The Consolidated Cambrian company headquarters in Cardiff Docks , she earned a salary of £1,000, a significant sum at that time. In 1908 aged 25, Thomas joined the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) and became secretary of its Newport branch. Between 1908 and 1914, she took the campaign for women's suffrage across South Wales. This activity saw her attend protest marches with the Pankhursts , endure an attack from
2201-627: The People Act 1918 had given women the vote only if they were over 30 and fulfilled a property qualification. In 1926 Rhondda focussed the Six Point Group on equal rights and led it in a new campaign to complete the enfranchisement of women, starting with a mass demonstration in Hyde Park . The Equal Political Rights Campaign Committee was then formed with Rhondda in the chair. Further demonstrations, meetings and lobbying followed until
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2272-546: The South Wales Liberal Federation from 1894 to 1897, Thomas believed that the southern counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, which together contained over half the Welsh population, would suffer under the proposed scheme for a single national federation. He held similar views on the disestablishment of the Church in Wales , believing that the revenues wrested from the church should be distributed to
2343-582: The counties on the basis of population. With David Lloyd George , Francis Edwards and Herbert Lewis , Thomas revolted against the Rosebery Government's perceived downgrading of Disestablishment in 1894. In 1900 he proposed a motion calling for a full inquiry into the Jameson Raid , claiming that the earlier Committee of Inquiry had access to all relevant material and that newspaper disclosures had impugned its impartiality. D. A. Thomas
2414-409: The crowd after she attempted to stop the prime minister's car, and suffer a period of imprisonment, ended only by her going on hunger strike , after she tried to ignite a Royal Mail letter-box with a chemical bomb. Despite these setbacks, Thomas remained very committed to the women's suffrage movement, considering it a draught of fresh air in what she described as her ‘padded, stifled life’. She
2485-401: The editorship herself in 1926 and continued in the post until her death. George Bernard Shaw , who wrote for the paper, was one of those who had a high opinion of her abilities as an editor and, according to Rebecca West , who was also a contributor, she insisted on a very high standard of writing. Rhondda saw Time and Tide primarily as a platform from which to advocate women's equality and
2556-621: The fellow suffragette Georgina Brackenbury so that it could be given to the National Portrait Gallery . It was unveiled by Stanley Baldwin in 1930. On the outbreak of the First World War , she accepted the decision by the WSPU leadership to abandon its militant campaign for suffrage . She was by this time working for her father as his confidential secretary and ‘right-hand man’. Thomas had great pride and belief in his daughter, and had argued with her on equal terms since she
2627-777: The first woman to take her seat in the British House of Commons . Shortly after Lady Rhondda's death in 1958, women entered the Lords for the first time thanks to the Life Peerages Act 1958 . Five years later, with the passage of the Peerage Act 1963 , hereditary peeresses were also allowed to enter the Lords. She succeeded her father as chair of the Sanatogen Company in February 1917. In total, she
2698-410: The hardships through which he had had to pass, and as the above quotation indicates, he was unable to shake off the fear of failure. A Welsh Baptist , he managed his household according to the " Protestant work ethic ". This seems to have been its own reward, for Samuel attained civic office as High Constable of Merthyr , then the roughest town in Wales. D. A. Thomas' mother, Rachel, is described as
2769-525: The honour. After her father's death, Lady Rhondda subsequently tried to take his seat in the House of Lords by citing the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 which allowed women to exercise "any public office". After initially being accepted, the Committee of Privileges membership was altered and her request was rejected. She was supported for many years by Lord Astor , whose wife Nancy had been
2840-526: The house in 1900 and acquired the neighbouring Pencoed estate shortly before his death, with the intention of presenting Pencoed Castle to his daughter, Margaret. Despite his fearsome reputation as an industrialist, Thomas appears to have been a genuinely well-loved landowner, the tenants of Pencoed actively lobbying him to buy the estate. This purchase left Thomas the largest landowner in Monmouthshire after Lord Tredegar . Despite his fortune, Thomas
2911-524: The issue and tried to hold the government to its war-time promises relating to working women. In 1920 Rhondda took advantage of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 to become one of the first four women justices of the peace in the County of Monmouth though she did not sit often. In May 1926 Rhondda was a founding member of the Open Door Council which was formed to advocate for equal pay, status and opportunity for women. As such, in 1929 she led
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2982-446: The journal an enhanced literary focus, publishing more book reviews and work by modern women novelists including Virginia Woolf , and from 1931 there was a new emphasis on international issues and world politics. This reflected Rhondda's own concerns about threats to peace. Similarly, in the 1940s the journal's content became increasingly right-wing as Rhondda's own political views moved to the right. Circulation then rose to 40,000 despite
3053-424: The journal constantly drew attention to women's advances such as the election of women to parliament, the appointment of women as magistrates and as members of juries , and the granting of degrees to women at Oxford University . Under her editorship the journal became ‘an innovative, imaginative and adaptable weekly paper’ which soon achieved a circulation of between 12,000 and 15,000 copies. In 1928 Rhondda gave
3124-488: The language of the business world was English, engaged an English nurse to get her children used to speaking English. In 1859, the family moved from Calfaria Welsh Baptist Chapel to Carmel, the English Baptist Chapel opposite. English was becoming the language of the valleys, and the language of respectability. Accordingly, the upwardly mobile Thomases were going to be Anglo-Welsh. D. A. Thomas' upbringing
3195-669: The late 1920s, the collieries of Consolidated Cambrian fell into receivership , and its assets later sold to GKN . After the collapse of Consolidated Cambrian, her personal accounts show that her outgoings always exceeded her income. In the summer of 1919, Rhondda was involved in creating and chairing the Efficiency Club , a networking organisation for British businesswomen, which she envisioned would have four aims: to promote greater efficiency and co-operation between established businesses and professional women, to encourage leadership and self reliance amongst all women workers, to form
3266-502: The late 1920s. She was close friends with Winifred Holtby , the author of South Riding , which led to jealousy from Holtby's dear friend, the writer Vera Brittain . She subsequently spent 25 years living with writer and editor Theodora Bosanquet , who acted as amanuensis to Henry James from 1907 to 1916. In 2015, the annual Mackworth Lecture was launched by the Institute of Directors in her honour. Her name and picture (and those of 58 other women's suffrage supporters) are on
3337-443: The loss of progressive readers, but Rhondda still had to subsidise the journal out of her own pocket. In 1921, Rhondda set up and chaired the Six Point Group , an action group that focused heavily on the equality between men and women and the rights of the child. The group's manifesto of equal rights for women within the workplace and for mothers and children sought the following: These were issues which had not been covered by
3408-445: The magazine and sustained it with a large portion of her inheritance. Rhondda recalled that she had always wanted to edit a paper. She knew that most weekly reviews lost money, but accepted this as the price of getting at the ‘keystone people’ - the inner group in society who influenced the general public. Rhondda appointed an all-woman board and ensured that the journal was entirely controlled, staffed and edited by women. She took over
3479-475: The man's predecessor, and the move to Tabernacle English Congregational church ended similarly, when the minister was replaced. Samuel Thomas took it upon himself to un-church his family and conduct worship at home. Such rancour cannot have endeared organised religion to the young David. Grigg describes Thomas' upbringing as 'Strict Congregationalist, yet D. A. Thomas was not baptised as an infant, suggesting that Samuel Thomas never abandoned his Baptist views. As
3550-428: The membership was usually under 300, the Six Point Group wielded considerable political influence in the interwar years and during the Second World War . It campaigned by traditional constitutional methods. Much of its work was done through its journal, Time and Tide . It also made deputations to the appropriate government ministers, organised public rallies and wrote letters to major newspapers. From 1933, along with
3621-769: The men's pay. They objected that the compensation provided for by the Personal Injuries (Emergency Provisions) Act of 1939 was skewed between male / female recipients. They were closely involved in the Equal Compensation Campaign from 1941 to 1943 and subsequently had representatives alongside the Open Door Council and the Fawcett Society on the committee of the Equal Pay Campaign from 1944 to ensure equal pay in
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#17327915713393692-467: The only issue to the couple. Perhaps Thomas' estrangement from organised religion is due to the religious controversies of the day, or the way in which his father managed to alienate himself altogether from organised religion. After moving to Carmel English Baptist Church, Samuel Thomas appears to have become embroiled in an argument with Rev. Thomas Price, the second minister. This appears to have been over no more than personalities, for Samuel had supported
3763-479: The poll, not even Keir Hardie was able to topple him from his perch. Although an employer, he was felt to be a fair man, and was genuinely respected by the voters of Merthyr. He was an early supporter of the Cymru Fydd movement, but opposed its integration with the South Wales Liberal Federation, thus making an enemy of David Lloyd George , being largely responsible for that movement's demise. As President of
3834-464: The religious sectarianism that marked the life of Wales at that time distasteful. Although brought up a Baptist (and later Congregationalist ), he was received into the Anglican Church upon his marriage to Sybil Margaret Haig in 1882 and was baptised at St. Andrew's Church, near Barry . The wedding took place in a billiard-room at her parents' house. A daughter, Margaret, was born in 1883,
3905-475: The story of an aged collier who, on being informed that Thomas had been in the ship when it had gone down, declared, "I will wait till tomorrow. He always comes out on top, and I promise you this: he will come to the top of the water again with a big fish in each of his hands." In 1916, he became President of the Local Government Board . As Minister of Food Control during the latter part of
3976-419: The time she was rescued and taken to Queenstown , she had fallen unconscious from hypothermia . After a period in hospital, she then spent several months recuperating at her parents' home. During the war Rhondda helped to place Belgian refugees in Monmouthshire and was then employed by the government to encourage women to undertake war work in essential industries, most notably in agriculture. In early 1918 she
4047-696: Was Member of Parliament (MP) for Merthyr Tydfil from 1888 until the January 1910 general election , then MP for Cardiff until the December 1910 general election , when he left politics to concentrate on his business interests. He was made a member of the Privy Council in 1916. He later held office, notably as " Food Controller " in Lloyd George's wartime coalition government. The son of coal mine owner Samuel Thomas of Ysguborwen , David Thomas
4118-530: Was a Welsh peeress , businesswoman and active suffragette who was significant in the history of women's suffrage in the United Kingdom . Margaret Haig Thomas was born on 12 June 1883 in London. Her parents were industrialist and politician David Alfred Thomas, 1st Viscount Rhondda , and Sybil Haig , also a suffragette. In her autobiography, Margaret wrote that her mother had 'prayed passionately that her baby daughter might become feminist', and she indeed became
4189-465: Was a director of 33 companies throughout her life, chairing six, having inherited 28 directorships from her father. Most of her business interests were in coal, steel and shipping via Consolidated Cambrian Ltd. She was passionate about increasing the number of women in the corporate world, and at this time was probably the best-known businesswoman in Britain. However, with the slump in coal prices during
4260-494: Was a second-generation industrialist. His energy and flair for innovation swiftly led him to build a commercial empire larger than his father's. Samuel, a man not noted for a cheerful temperament, is said to have remarked on the day of his son's birth (during a thunderstorm), "Well, I see nothing for him but the workhouse ." Although tradition cited D. A. Thomas' birthplace as being an old white-walled cottage in Aberdare , this
4331-533: Was awarded a Hunger Strike Medal 'for Valour' by WSPU. When Emmeline Pankhurst died in June 1928, it was Kitty Marshall , Rosamund Massey and Thomas who arranged her memorials. They raised money for her gravestone in Brompton Cemetery and a statue of her outside the House of Commons , which she had frequently been prevented from entering. Money was also raised to buy the painting that had been made by
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#17327915713394402-472: Was created by artist Jane Robbins and was installed in Newport on 25th September 2024. The statue includes a circle of hands cast from about forty women’s hands, among them the hands of Olivette Otele and Helen Ward . David Alfred Thomas, 1st Viscount Rhondda David Alfred Thomas, 1st Viscount Rhondda , PC (26 March 1856 – 3 July 1918), was a Welsh industrialist and Liberal politician. He
4473-459: Was much disappointed when he was not offered Government office after the Liberal election victory of 1906. Unlike Herbert Lewis and Lloyd George, more had been expected from Thomas in 1894, and his actions in joining the revolt had not endeared him to the Liberal leadership. Thomas became increasingly disillusioned with politics, and left parliament at the December 1910 General Election , apparently
4544-701: Was not fully developed. He was awarded the Guy Medal in 1904 from the Royal Statistical Society for The Growth and Direction of our Foreign Trade in Coal (1850–1900) written in 1903. Having made a fortune as owner of the Cambrian Collieries, he would return to politics as David Lloyd George's emissary to the United States, for which purpose he was created Baron Rhondda in 1916 and later Viscount Rhondda in 1918. In May 1915 he
4615-459: Was offered the honour. Following his death, and with the recent passage of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 , she attempted to take his seat in the House of Lords. After initially being accepted, the relevant committee's membership was altered and her request was rejected. Thomas's widow, Sybil, Viscountess Rhondda (1857–1941) was created a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1920. Thomas had extensive investments in
4686-403: Was on the RMS Lusitania when she was torpedoed . He and his daughter, Margaret, were among the survivors. A humorous story, remembered by his daughter, was that the local (Cardiff) Evening Express newspaper displayed a poster about the sinking that read "Great National Disaster. D. A. Saved" . The somewhat equivocal compliment amused D. A. Thomas immensely. Clement Edwards , MP, related
4757-406: Was promoted to Chief Controller of women's recruitment at the Ministry of National Service in London to advise on women's recruitment policy, experience which she later used to good effect. On 3 July 1918 her father died. While the Rhondda Barony died with him, the title of Viscount Rhondda passed to Margaret by special remainder, which Thomas had insisted on from King George V when he was offered
4828-457: Was quite content to retain the mansion at Llanwern, a large square house on a hilltop overlooking the village of Llanwern. The house, dating to 1760, was old-fashioned in its appearance with an interior decorated in a Chinese-influenced style. D. A. Thomas was elected MP for Merthyr Tydfil at a by-election in 1888, and represented the seat until he stepped down to fight the marginal seat of Cardiff in January 1910 . Thomas consistently topped
4899-411: Was stern and Victorian, teaching him discipline, mediated through love. That discipline remained with Thomas, in business and in politics. Towards the end of Thomas' life, William Brace , the Trade Union leader commented that "Rhondda has the income of a Duke and the tastes of a Peasant." Thomas was educated at Manila Hall, Clifton , Bristol, before going up to Cambridge University Initially, Thomas
4970-404: Was to have gone to Jesus College on a scholarship originally intended for the sons of Anglican Ministers. Since Samuel Thomas was neither an Anglican nor a minister, it would be interesting to know exactly how D. A. Thomas obtained such a scholarship. An attack of Typhoid fever, contracted in Clermont-Ferrand meant that Thomas was unable to take up the scholarship. As it was, Thomas obtained
5041-401: Was twelve or thirteen. She thus went with him when he was sent by David Lloyd George to the United States to arrange the supply of munitions for the British armed forces. Her father became aware of his daughter's depressive state , and although she brushed her father's concern aside, he became aware of tensions within her marriage. On 7 May 1915, she was returning from the United States on
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