George Thomas, 1st Viscount Tonypandy

PC
Thomas, c. 1955
Speaker of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom
In office 3 February 1976 – 15 June 1983
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson James Callaghan Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by	Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal
In office 11 July 1983 – 22 September 1997 Hereditary peerage
Preceded by	Peerage created
Succeeded by	Peerage extinct
Member of Parliament for Cardiff West Cardiff Central (1945–1950)
In office 5 July 1945 – 13 May 1983
Preceded by	Ernest Bennett
Succeeded by	Stefan Terlezki
Personal details
Born	Thomas George Thomas (1909-01-29)29 January 1909 Port Talbot, Wales
Died	22 September 1997(1997-09-22) (aged 88) Cardiff, Wales
Nationality	British
Political party	Labour (1945–1976) Speaker (1976–1983) Crossbench (1983–1997)
Alma mater	University College, Southampton
Profession	Teaching

Thomas George Thomas, 1st Viscount Tonypandy,

Born in Port Talbot, South Wales, he initially worked as a teacher in both London and Cardiff. A MP from 1945 to 1983, he held office in Harold Wilson's 1964–1970 Labour administration, notably as Secretary of State for Wales from 1968 to 1970. As a junior minister at the Welsh Office, he was one of the first on the scene of the Aberfan disaster (21 October 1966), and was later involved in the controversial government decision to use money from the Aberfan Charity Fund to clear remaining National Coal Board waste tips from around the village.

In 1976 Thomas was elected Speaker, in which role the first broadcasting of parliamentary proceedings brought him unprecedented public attention. He is the most recent Speaker to have served as a government minister before becoming Speaker. He retired from Parliament in 1983 and was elevated to the peerage as Viscount Tonypandy, of Rhondda in the County of Mid Glamorgan.^[1]

Early life and education

Thomas was born in

Thomas initially showed sympathy to the people of the village, where a NCB colliery spoil tip slid down a hillside and engulfed houses and a primary school, killing 144 people, 116 of them children. Disagreements subsequently arose, when Thomas refused to order the removal of the other tips surrounding the village, for which the villagers were campaigning.^[5] When the government ultimately acceded to the demands for removal, it took £150,000 from the Aberfan relief fund – raised to help the victims of the disaster and their families – in part payment of the costs. Just over 30 years later, the money was refunded by the newly appointed Secretary of State for Wales Ron Davies who described it as, "a wrong that needed to be righted."^[6]

In early 1967 he became

In the House of Lords Thomas was an outspoken critic of the European Union and the Maastricht Treaty, and in a June 1993 debate, he endorsed Margaret Thatcher’s comments and defended her after Roy Jenkins had criticised her similar "extreme" views against further European sociopolitical integration.^[8]

Thomas's opposition to Welsh nationalism was finally expressed in hostility to the Blair government's devolution proposals of 1997. He was asked by Robert Hodge, son of Sir Julian Hodge, to be a member of the steering committee of the "Just Say No" campaign (which opposed devolution in 1997). Despite ailing from cancer, Thomas agreed to a ceremonial role and became president. Other known persons in the movement included Nick Bourne, David Davies (Monmouth MP) and Alun Cairns.

During that year, he also gave his very high-profile endorsement of

A portrait of Thomas in the robes of the Speaker is part of the Parliamentary Art Collection.[11]

He was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1983 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at London’s Royal Albert Hall, ahead of a charity concert for the National Children’s Home.^{[citation needed]}

Personal life

After Lord Tonypandy's death, former Welsh Labour MP Leo Abse revealed that Thomas had been homosexual and had been blackmailed because of it. Abse, the MP who introduced the private member's bill which partially decriminalised homosexuality in Britain, discussed this incident in his book Tony Blair: The Man Behind the Smile.^[12] He said that Thomas had paid money to blackmailers to keep information related to his private life secret. Abse said that he had once lent Thomas £800 to pay off blackmailers,^[13][14] and had also provided advice when Thomas contracted a venereal disease from a rent boy.^[15] Abse wrote that, while being otherwise a tough and fearless politician, Thomas would "dangerously over-react and panic if there was the slightest sign of a crack in the thin ice upon which he skated all this life ... The slightest tremor of scandal ... reduced him to a jelly."^[16] He also explained that he had decided to reveal Thomas's sexuality because he thought that "the gifts he gave to the nation fundamentally arose because of, not despite, his sexual orientation", adding that he brought "a feminine sensibility and empathy" to politics.^[17]

Throughout his career Thomas remained a deeply religious man, and was a prominent member of the

Lord Tonypandy died in Cardiff on 22 September 1997. He was twice engaged to be married[20] but he never did, so there was no heir to the viscountcy, which became extinct.^[21] He is buried at Trealaw Cemetery.

Allegations of sexual abuse

In July 2014, British media carried reports that the South Wales Police were investigating allegations that Thomas had sexually abused a boy aged nine in the late 1960s.^[22][23] In March 2015, South Wales Police confirmed that they were investigating claims that he had been involved in child abuse.^[24] The probe ended in March 2017 with no action being taken.^[25]

Arms

Coat of arms of George Thomas, 1st Viscount Tonypandy

Notes Lord Tonypandy's arms as displayed in Speaker's House[1] and described in Mr Speaker. The supporters are not illustrated. Coronet of a viscount Crest A miner's lamp between two daffodils slipped and leaved proper. Torse Or and Vert Escutcheon Or an open book proper bound Sable garnished Gules. On a chief of the last between two portcullises Or a pale per pale Argent and Or, charged with three chevrons gules.[26] Supporters Dexter: A Coal Miner c. 1930 in his working clothes wearing a Cloth Cap proper, holding in the exterior hand a miner's lamp proper. Sinister: A Serjeant-at Arms habited in court dress as worn on state occasions, his cocked hat under his exterior arm, the hand thereof gloved and grasping the hilt of his sword proper. Motto Bid Ben Bid Bont (Let the leader be a bridge)

Bibliography

• George Thomas, Mr Speaker: The Memoirs of Viscount Tonypandy, Century, London (1985)
  ISBN 0-7126-0706-4
• My Wales, with photographs by
  ISBN 0-7126-1897-X