Paul Williams (politician)
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Paul Glyn Williams (born 14 November 1922) was Conservative Party (UK) Member of Parliament for Sunderland South, and a leading member of the Conservative Monday Club. He was also a prominent businessman.
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[edit] Personal life
The son of Samuel O. Williams and Esmée (née Cail), he was educated at Marlborough College and Trinity Hall, Cambridge University (MA 1942). He married [1]1947, Joan Hardy (div.1964), having had two daughters. He remarried [2] Gillian, eldest daughter of A.G.Howland Jackson, from Elstead, Surrey, by whom he had one daughter. He lives near Devizes, in Wiltshire.
[edit] Business activities
He was a Director of: First South African Cordage, 1947 - 1954; Transair, 1953-1962; Hodgkinson Partners Ltd., PR Consultants, 1956-1964; Minster Executive, 1977-1983; Chairman of Directors of the Backer Electric Company Limited, 1978-1987; Henry Sykes, 1980-1983. He was a Consultant to: P-E International plc, 1983 - 1991; Hogg Robinson Career Services, 1991-1995.
[edit] Politics
In a by-election in 1953 he was elected as Conservative Member of Parliament (MP), for Sunderland South, which he held until his defeat at the 1964 general election. However, he resigned the Conservative Party Whip and sat as an Independent in 1957-58, because he disagreed with the government's decision to withdraw from Suez.
[edit] Monday Club
An early member (1962) of the Conservative Monday Club he was National Club chairman from 1964 - 1969, standing down in the latter year because of business pressures. In November 1965 Peterborough in the Daily Telegraph stated that "the Club owed a good deal of its standing to its Chairman, Paul Williams", and commended his "political acumen". In 1966 he issued a press statement on behalf of the Club criticising the Conservative Opposition in which he said "Mr. Angus Maude is right in saying that 'to the electorate at large the opposition has become a meaningless irrelevance.' To some of us outside parliament it appears to be neither Conservative nor an opposition...we must oppose socialism, not condone it."
At the Club's AGM in April 1969, in his outgoing Chairman's address, he called for a more aggressive Opposition, appealing for "patriotism and moral rejuvenation, and a return for self-respect in the individual and the nation." (cf:Copping,(ii)pps:13,16). He was still on the Club's Executive Council in 1971, 1972, and 1973, and was still listed as a Vice-President in 1991. He and his wife attended Alec Douglas-Home's Memorial Service at Westminster Abbey in 1996.
[edit] References
- Copping, Robert, The Story of the Monday Club - The First Decade, Current Affairs Information Service, London, April 1972, (P/B).
- Black, A & C., Who's Who, London. (Various editions).
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Richard Ewart |
Member of Parliament for Sunderland South 1953–1964 |
Succeeded by Gordon Bagier |
