David Williams (Swansea East MP)

{{Short description|Welsh Labour Party politician (1865–1941)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2018}}

{{Use British English|date=March 2018}}

{{Infobox officeholder

| honorific-prefix =

| name = David Williams

| honorific-suffix = {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100|MP}}, {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100|JP}}

| image =

| caption =

| office = Member of Parliament
for Swansea East

| term_start = 15 November 1922

| term_end = 26 January 1940

| predecessor = David Matthews

| successor = David Mort

| birth_name = David Williams

| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1865|09|08}}

| birth_place = Swansea

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1941|01|22|1865|09|08|df=yes}}

| death_place = Swansea

| party = Labour

| spouse = Elizabeth Colwill

| alma_mater =

}}

David Williams (8 September 1865 – 22 January 1941) was a Welsh Labour Party politician.{{cite web |url=http://www.leighrayment.com/commons/Scommons6.htm |title=Historical list of MPs: constituencies beginning with "S", part 6 |work=Leigh Rayment's House of Commons pages |accessdate=4 January 2010 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180818113510/http://www.leighrayment.com/commons/Scommons6.htm |archive-date=18 August 2018 }}{{cite news|title=Obituary: Mr David Williams|date=23 January 1941|work=The Times|page=7}}

The second son of David and Mary Williams, his father worked at the local Kilvey Copper Works.{{cite web|url=http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whowaswho/U233477|title=WILLIAMS, David|date=December 2007|work=Who Was Who|accessdate=5 September 2011}} Williams received little education before entering service in 1877 as a pageboy for the Genfell family of Kilvey, Swansea, owners of the copper works. By the age of 16, he was working in the copper works, but was dismissed after leading a strike. He then became an apprentice boilermaker, while attending evening classes. In 1889, he married Elizabeth Colwill, and the couple had five children.

Williams was involved in trade union activities and Labour politics from a young age. In 1898, he became the first Independent Labour Party councillor elected to Swansea Town Council, becoming an alderman in 1904 and was mayor of Swansea in 1912–1913. He received the freedom of Swansea in 1924. He was the first chairman of the Swansea Co-operative Society when it was formed in 1900.

He unsuccessfully contested the parliamentary constituency of Swansea East at the 1918 general election.{{cite book

|last=Craig

|first=F. W. S.

|author-link= F. W. S. Craig

|title=British parliamentary election results 1918–1949

|orig-year=1969

|edition=3rd

|year=1983

|publisher= Parliamentary Research Services

|location=Chichester

|isbn= 0-900178-06-X

|page=

}} When the Coalition Liberal MP Thomas Jeremiah Williams died the following year, he stood in the resulting by-election, cutting the Liberal majority. He won the seat at the 1922 general election, and held it until he resigned from the House of Commons on 26 January 1940, due to ill health.{{cite web|url=http://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons/lib/research/briefings/snpc-04731.pdf |title=Appointments to the Chiltern Hundreds and Manor of Northstead Stewardships since 1850 |author=Department of Information Services |publisher=House of Commons Library |date=9 June 2009 |accessdate=30 November 2009 |url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110206041753/http://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons/lib/research/briefings/snpc-04731.pdf |archivedate=6 February 2011 }} He died a year later, aged 75.