Ness Edwards (5 April 1897 – 3 May 1968) was a trade unionist and Welsh Labour Party politician: he served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Caerphilly from July 1939 until his death.
When conscription was introduced in 1916, Ness Edwards' conscientious objections to compulsory service were 'absolutist' and based on his trade union and socialist principles.
He was treated harshly - imprisoned with hard labour at Dartmoor and later at Wormwood Scrubs, beaten in Brecon barracks and chased naked by soldiers with fixed bayonets, forced to work in stone quarries in freezing weather.
[2] He was elected to Parliament at the 1939 Caerphilly by-election, following the death of Labour MP and fellow conscientious objector Morgan Jones.
An associate of Aneurin Bevan and Jim Griffiths, Edwards was Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Labour and National Service from 1945 to 1950 and Postmaster General from 1950 to 1951.