Garrod Thomas

He was born at Panteryrod, near Aberaeron, in Cardiganshire, the son of Lewis Thomas; his older brother John Aeron Thomas, a solicitor and businessman, was also a Member of Parliament.[1][2][3] He was a Welsh speaker to age 13, and was educated at Milford Haven. At the University of Edinburgh he graduated M.B. in 1876, and that year also became a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. After graduation he studied at Berlin and Vienna. He became M.D. at Edinburgh in 1878,[4] and started work in Newport, Monmouthshire.[1][2] In 1892 he founded the South Wales Argus.[5] In 1915 he donated the house at 25 Clytha Park, Newport for the treatment of tuberculous children.[6] He owned the Mansion House, Newport.[7]

Thomas was appointed High Sheriff of Cardiganshire for 1900.[8] He was elected Liberal Member of Parliament for South Monmouthshire in a 1917 by-election, but did not stand again.[2] At the time of the Newport by-election, in 1922, he was President of the local Liberal Association and was first approached to stand as Liberal candidate, but in the end William Lynden Moore was chosen, a neutral in the conflict between Asquith Liberals and supporters of Lloyd George.[9]

In 1879 Thomas married Eleanor, daughter of Richard Hughes Richards of Newport.[1] The chemist Richard Noel Garrod-Thomas was their son.[10]