Owen John Thomas

Owen John Thomas was born in Cardiff, where his father had a pharmacy.

Thomas was a pupil at Marlborough Road School, Cardiff, and at Howardian Grammar School. He left school at sixteen to work in the docks and had various other jobs including as an analytical chemist. Thomas later attended the Glamorgan College of Education and the University of Wales, Cardiff where he completed an MA in the history of the Welsh Language.[1]

Thomas was deputy headteacher of Gladstone Primary School before being elected to the National Assembly for Wales. He is a former chairman of the Cardiff region of the UCAC trade union. He has been active in Plaid Cymru since his teens, filling a variety of posts from branch secretary to vice president. At the 1981 Plaid Cymru conference he succeeded in having 'socialism' included amongst the party's main aims. He is a longstanding champion of the campaign for leasehold reform and a founder member of Clwb Ifor Bach (Cardiff's Welsh Language night club) whose president he was from 1983-89. He learned Welsh in his late twenties.

Thomas is married to Sian Wyn Thomas, the headteacher of Ysgol Glan Morfa, Splott. He has six children and eight grandchildren.

From 1999 to 2007 Thomas was a member of the National Assembly for Wales, representing the South Wales Central region for Plaid Cymru. He was Shadow Minister for Culture at the National Assembly for Wales,

Thomas was the Plaid Cymru candidate for the Cathays ward in the May 2008 Cardiff local elections.

• Guardian Unlimited Article, 7 March 2007, giving details of Assembly Members who are not seeking re-election