Harold Finch

Who was Harold Finch?

Sir Harold Josiah Finch was a Welsh Labour Party politician born in Barry, Glamorgan.

A miners' agent in Blackwood after the First World War, Finch was a contemporary of Aneurin Bevan and accompanied him as a miners' delegate to the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool in 1925. He was elected as Member of Parliament for Bedwellty at the 1950 general election and was Under-secretary of State at the Welsh Office from 1964 to 1966 during Harold Wilson's first administration. He held the seat until he retired from the House of Commons at the 1970 general election. His successor was Neil Kinnock, who later became leader of the Labour Party.

Harold Finch was knighted in the 1976 in the Queen's Birthday Honours for his services to politics and the trade union movement. He was the first 'Freeman' of Islwyn Borough Council and the Sir Harold Finch Memorial Park was created in 1982 at Pontllanfraith.