Welsh quarryman, trade unionist and Labour Party politician
Robert Thomas (R. T.) Jones (14 October 1874 – 15 December 1940) was a Welsh quarryman, trade unionist and Labour Party politician.[1]
Born in Blaenau Ffestiniog, Jones started work in the slate quarries when was 13.[2] His first language was Welsh. As a young man he was influenced by R. Silyn Roberts (1871–1930), the Welsh poet, social reformer and early ILP supporter, who was Minister of the Calvinistic Methodist chapel at Tanygrisiau in Blaenau Ffestiniog from 1905 to 1912.[3]
^R. Merfyn Jones, The North Wales Quarrymen 1874–1922 (Cardiff, University of Wales Press, 1981) p. 299
^Jones was "one of Silyn's 'young men' in Blaenau" ("un o 'ddynion ieuanc' Silyn yn y Blaenau"): David Thomas, Silyn (Liverpool, 1956) p 69, cited in R. Merfyn Jones, The North Wales Quarrymen 1874–1922, p. 299. Silyn was a leading Welsh lyric poet, who won the crown in the 1902 National Eisteddfod. His volume of poetry Telynegion (1900, with W. J. Gruffydd) marked a new beginning for Welsh lyrical poetry. In 1908 he published Y Blaid Lafur Anibynnol, ei Hanes a'i Hamcan (The Independent Labour Party, its History and Objectives) and was elected as a Labour member on the Merioneth county council. See: David Thomas, 'ROBERTS , ROBERT (SILYN) (Rhosyr; 1871–1930), Calvinistic Methodist minister, poet, social reformer, tutor': Dictionary of Welsh Biography (1959), Welsh Biography Online accessed 18 April 2017
^ abcCraig, F. W. S. (1983) [1969]. British parliamentary election results 1918–1949 (3rd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. p. 549. ISBN0-900178-06-X.