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The Right Honourable
The Lord Ogmore
PC
The Right Honourable The Lord Ogmore PC
	Rees-Williams in 1947
Member of Parliament for Croydon South
	In office; 5 July 1945 – 3 February 1950
Preceded by	Herbert Williams
Succeeded by	Constituency abolished
Personal details
Born	David Rees Rees-Williams; 22 November 1903; Bridgend, Wales
Died	30 August 1976 (aged 72)
Political party	Labour (until 1959); Liberal (1959–1976)
Spouse	Constance Wills
Children	3

David Rees Rees-Williams, 1st Baron Ogmore, PC, TD (22 November 1903 – 30 August 1976) was a British politician.

Career

Rees-Williams was born in Bridgend, Wales, the son of William Rees Williams,^[1] of Garth-celyn, Bridgend, and Jennet, daughter of Morgan David, of Bridgend. William Rees Williams was a veterinary surgeon (a Fellow of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons), and had served as a captain in the Royal Army Veterinary Corps.^[2]^[3] He qualified as a solicitor in 1929. Commissioned into the 6th (Territorial Army) Battalion, Welch Regiment, he was promoted Captain in 1936 and Major in 1938, by which time his battalion had become a searchlight unit. He transferred to the Royal Artillery in 1940, when all searchlight units did so, and ended the Second World War as a Lieutenant-Colonel.

Rees-Williams was elected Labour Member of Parliament for Croydon South in 1945, defeating the incumbent MP, Sir Herbert Williams. In the government he was a minister in the Colonial Office, travelling to East Asia to consider the movements towards independence. His seat was redistributed at the end of the Parliament and he narrowly lost the successor seat at the 1950 general election and was raised to the peerage as Baron Ogmore, of Bridgend in the County of Glamorgan, on 10 July 1950.^[4] He served as Minister of Civil Aviation in 1951 and was made a Privy Councillor the same year. Lord Ogmore was President of the London Welsh Trust, which ran the London Welsh Centre, Gray's Inn Road, from 1955 until 1959.^[5]

Lord Ogmore joined the Liberal Party in 1959 and served as Liberal Party President, 1963–1964.

Personal life

In 1930, Lord Ogmore married (Alice Alexandra) Constance, daughter of Walter Robert Wills, Lord Mayor of Cardiff from 1945 to 1946.^[6] He had three children. His daughter, Elizabeth Rees-Williams, married the actors Richard Harris and Sir Rex Harrison, the businessman Peter Aitken, and more recently Jonathan Aitken, the former Conservative MP. His grandsons are actors Jared Harris and Jamie Harris and director Damian Harris.^[7]^[8]

Honours

Coat of arms of David Rees-Williams, 1st Baron Ogmore
	Crest A tiger’s head couped Proper charged on the neck with three chevronels couped Gules. Escutcheon Azure two bars wavy Argent on a chief arched of the second between as many hurts each charged with a quatrefoil Or a hurt thereon a sun in splendour of the third. Supporters Dexter a tiger Proper charged on the shoulder with three chevronels couped Gules, sinister a horse Argent. Motto Ffyddlon Hyd Angau (Faithful Unto Death) ^[9]

Foreign honour

Myanmar :
- Agga-Maha-Thayay-Sithu of the Order of the Pyidaungsu Sithu Thingaha (1956)
Malaya :
- Honorary Commander of the Order of the Defender of the Realm (P.M.N. (K)) - Tan Sri (1959)^[10]

References

^ Per Burke's Peerage 2003 vol. 2 p. 2988, William was son of George Williams and Elvira Rees; David Rees-Williams was the first to use both names as a hyphenated surname.
^ "WILLIAMS, DAVID REES (Later REES-WILLIAMS, DAVID REES), 1st BARON OGMORE (1903-1976), politician and lawyer | Dictionary of Welsh Biography".
^ Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 107th edition, vol. 2, ed. Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage Ltd, 2003, p. 2988
^ "No. 38968". The London Gazette. 14 July 1950. p. 3622.
^ "Our Former Presidents: London Welsh Centre". London Welsh Centre website. London Welsh Centre. 2010. Archived from the original on 20 July 2011. Retrieved 4 February 2011.
^ Europa Publications Limited (1974). The international who's who. Europa Publications. ISBN 9780900362729. Retrieved 20 May 2015.
^ Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 107th edition, vol. 2, ed. Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage Ltd, 2003, p. 2988
^ Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 106th edition, ed. Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage Ltd, 1999, vol. 1, p. 231
^ Debrett's Peerage. 1985.
^ "Senarai Penuh Penerima Darjah Kebesaran, Bintang dan Pingat Persekutuan Tahun 1959" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 February 2019. Retrieved 18 June 2016.

External links

Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by David Rees-Williams
Portraits of David Rees-Williams, 1st Baron Ogmore at the National Portrait Gallery, London

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Herbert Williams	Member of Parliament for Croydon South 1945–1950	Constituency abolished
Political offices
Preceded by Ivor Bulmer-Thomas	Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies 1947–1950	Succeeded by Thomas Fotheringham-Cook
Preceded by The Lord Pakenham	Minister of Civil Aviation 1951	Succeeded by John Maclay
Party political offices
Preceded by Felix Brunner	President of the Liberal Party 1963–1964	Succeeded by Roger Fulford
Preceded by ?	President of the Welsh Liberal Party ?–1970	Succeeded by Rhys Lloyd
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation	Baron Ogmore 1950–1976	Succeeded by Gwilym Rees Rees-Williams