Llewellyn Heycock, Baron Heycock

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Llewellyn Heycock, Baron Heycock CBE (born August 12, 1905 in Taibach , Port Talbot , † July 14, 1990 in Neath ) was a British Labor Party politician who was a member of the House of Lords in 1967 as a life peer under the Life Peerages Act 1958 has been.

Life

Origin, professional career and involvement in local politics

Heycock, whose father worked in the Port Talbot shipyards , left Eastern School as the eldest of six sons in 1919 at the age of fourteen and worked as a train cleaner at Dyffryn Yard Loco Shed before becoming a train driver on the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway (GWR) has run trains from South Wales to Paddington throughout his professional career .

In addition to his professional activity, he was involved in the local parish and politically in the National Union of Railwaymen (NUR ) and the local movement of the Labor Party. During this time he supported Ramsay MacDonald , who won the general election of November 15, 1922 in the constituency of Aberavon against liberal MP John Edwards and thus moved back as a member of the House of Commons . In 1926 he took part in a leading position in the general strike organized by the Communist Party , but ended contacts with the Communist Party again when he came under the influence of Labor politicians Aneurin Bevan and James Griffiths .

In 1937 Heycock was elected to the Labor Party for the first time as a member of the County Council of Glamorgan , and in this until 1977 he represented the constituency of Taibach without interruption . During this time he was also chairman of the county council's education committee from 1944 to 1974. Due to the knowledge acquired there, he also became a member of the United Education Committee of Wales in 1949 and was also its chairman for eleven years until 1960. At the same time he became a member of the Council for Wales and Monmouthshire founded by Prime Minister Clement Attlee in 1949 , a body to advise the British Government on Welsh affairs, and was reappointed as a member in 1959.

Unsuccessful application for a House of Commons nomination and House of Lords member

In the late 1950s he ran to succeed William Cove, Labor MP for the Aberavon constituency in the lower house. He received the support of the parliamentary organization of the railroad workers' union ONLY and 39 nominations in the official list in 1957, while his party opponent, the barrister John Morris , only got three nominations. However, Morris was nominated for the steelworkers' union, the backbone of Port Talbot's economy. In the final nomination meeting, Morris was finally elected to the Labor Party candidate in the general election on October 8, 1959 , to Heycock's disappointment . Despite broad support inside and outside the Labor Party he renounced in this general election to a candidacy as a non-party and focused on its activities in the local politics .

In educational policy, Heycock, who was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1959, advocated bilingual teaching in English and Welsh in primary and secondary schools as well as for the adult education institution Coleg Harlech , of which he was president for 30 years. He also used his relationships with various institutions at the University of Wales , which awarded him an honorary doctorate in law in 1963 . In 1964 he was heavily involved in maintaining the unity of the university. He was also the first elector from Port Talbot to serve as Chairman of the Glamorgan County Council between 1962 and 1963.

Heycock became a life peer with the title Baron Heycock , of Taibach in the Borough of Port Ellen, through a letters patent dated July 10, 1967 , a member of the House of Lords, to which he belonged for more than 23 years until his death. In 1967 he was also commander of the Order of St. John .

In 1974 he opposed the municipal reorganization in vain. Glamorgan County was divided into West Glamorgan (including Swansea ), Mid Glamorgan and South Glamorgan (including Cardiff ), with Port Talbot being part of West Glamorgan. Between 1974 and 1975 he served as the first chairman of the new West Glamorgan County Council. After serving in the executive for several years, he became Chairman of the Welsh Association of County Councils in 1976. At the devolution referendum in Wales in 1979, he supported the No campaign by MPs Neil Kinnock and Leo Abse .

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personal data
SURNAME Heycock, Llewellyn, Baron Heycock
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British politician
DATE OF BIRTH August 12, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Taibach , Port Talbot
DATE OF DEATH July 14, 1990
Place of death Neath