Hugh Edwards

Who was Hugh Edwards?

Hugh Edwards was a British Liberal Party politician.

Aberystwyth-born Edwards was an author, having written a history of Wales and three biographies of David Lloyd George. He was a governor of University College Aberystwyth and University College Cardiff. He was the editor of the Magazines 'Young Wales', 'Welsh Review' and 'Wales,' Liberal Welsh nationalist magazines. Prior to this, he served as a Congregationalist Minister in Montgomershire and London.

Edwards was a supporter of the 'Cymru Fydd', or 'Young Wales' Movement of the 1890s, one of a number of South Walians who supported Lloyd George's attempt to create a united Welsh nationalist movement. He was present at the Newport Meeting of the South Wales Liberal Federation, in which the scheme for unity went down to defeat.

Edwards was elected Member of Parliament for Mid Glamorgan at the December 1910 general election, with a majority of more than 1,500 over a Labour Party candidate. In the years before the First World War, J. Hugh Edwards became well known for his anti-Socialist campaigning. In 1918, after extensive changes to the Glamorgan Parliamentary boundaries, J. Hugh Edwards was returned for Neath with a majority of more than 8,000 votes over the Labour candidate. At the 1922 general election, Edwards lost his seat to William Jenkins, a miners' leader and chairman of Glamorgan County Council who won a 6,235 majority over Edwards. Although a Welsh nationalist, J. Hugh Edwards would never sit for a Welsh Seat again, a sign of the weakening Liberal grip of Wales.