Thomas Jones, Baron Maelor

Thomas William Jones, Baron Maelor (10 February 1898 – 18 November 1984) was a British Labour politician.

Born into a mining family in Ponciau, Wrexham, Wales, he was educated at Ponciau School before becoming a coal miner at the nearby Bersham Colliery. He later attended Normal College Bangor, Gwynedd and qualified as a teacher. During World War I he was a conscientious objector, but was granted recognition only to serve in the army as a non-combatant. He received a six-month prison sentence by court-martial for refusing to obey orders, on grounds of conscience, which he served at Wormwood Scrubs prison in London; under the Home Office Scheme he was transferred to Knutsford Work Centre, and then Princetown Work Centre in the former Dartmoor prison in Devon.[1]

Jones firstly stood as a Labour Parliamentary candidate in 1935, but was unsuccessful. However, in the 1951 general election he was elected as Member of Parliament for Meirionnydd Westminster constituency, a position he held until 1966. On 13 June 1966 he was given a life peerage as Baron Maelor, of Rhosllannerchrugog in the County of Denbighshire.[2]

He was a poet and a member of the Gorsedd of Bards at the National Eisteddfod of Wales and served as President of the International Eisteddfod at Llangollen. Lord Maelor, a lifelong heavy smoker, died in an overnight fire at his home in Ponciau in 1984 which was thought to be started by a smouldering cigarette.

His brother, Idwal, was Member of Parliament (Labour) for Wrexham from 1955 to 1970.