David Williams (Swansea East MP)

David Williams (8 September 1865 – 22 January 1941) was a Welsh Labour Party politician.[1][2] The second son of David and Mary Williams, his father worked at the local Kilvey Copper Works.[3] Williams received little education before entering service in 1877 as a pageboy for the Genfell family of Kilvey, Swansea, owners of the copper works.[2] 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.[2] In 1889 he married Elizabeth Colwill, and the couple had five children.[3]

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.[2] He received the freedom of Swansea in 1924.[2] He was the first chairman of the Swansea Co-operative Society when it was formed in 1900.[2][3]

He unsuccessfully contested the parliamentary constituency of Swansea East at the 1918 general election.[4] When the Coalition Liberal MP Thomas Jeremiah Williams died the following year, he stood in the resulting by-election, cutting the Liberal majority.[4] He won the seat at the 1922 general election,[4] and held it until he resigned from the House of Commons on 26 January 1940 due to ill health.[2][5] He died a year later, aged 75.[2]