Gareth Williams, Baron Williams of Mostyn

Who was Gareth Williams, Baron Williams of Mostyn?

Gareth Wyn Williams, Baron Williams of Mostyn, PC, QC, was a Welsh barrister and Labour politician who was Leader of the House of Lords, Lord President of the Council and a member of the Cabinet at the time of his sudden death in 2003.

Williams was born near Prestatyn, in North Wales, a son of Albert Thomas Williams and his wife Selina, née Evans. He was educated at Rhyl Grammar School and at Queens' College, Cambridge.

He had a successful legal career, becoming a Queen's Counsel, Recorder, Deputy High Court Judge and Chairman of the Bar Council. He was made a life peer as Baron Williams of Mostyn, of Great Tew in Oxfordshire in 1992 and became an opposition spokesman in the House of Lords on Legal Affairs, and later Northern Ireland. After Labour's election victory he appointed a Home Office minister, and in 1999 became Attorney General for England and Wales and Northern Ireland. He was appointed Leader of the House of Lords in 2001, initially with the sinecure office of Lord Privy Seal, for which Lord President of the Council was substituted in 2003.

Lord Williams married firstly in 1962 Pauline, daughter of Ernest Clarke, and by her had two daughters, Martha and Emma, and a son, Daniel. They divorced, and he married secondly in 1994 Veena M Russell, and by her had one daughter, Imogen.