W. Llewelyn Williams

He was born at Brownhill, Llansadwrn, Towy Valley, Carmarthenshire, the second son of Morgan Williams and his wife Sarah (née Davies).

Born into a prosperous Congregationalist family, his grandfather Morgan Williams had been an elder at Capel Issac near Llandeilo, before moving from Ffrwd-wen to his new residence at Brownhill.

[1] Another uncle, Benjamin Williams (1830–86) was also an Independent minister, serving at Gwernllwyn, Dowlais; Denbigh; and Canaan, Swansea.

While a student at Oxford, he participated in the vigorous debates which took place in his home constituency of East Carmarthenshire to choose a Liberal candidate for the 1890 by-election following the death of David Pugh.

Williams became involved in the Cymru Fydd movement, which emerged in the late 1880s, largely inspired by Tom Ellis.

[9] The Commission reported two years later and proposed establishing a Land Court to defend the rights of Welsh tenant farmers.

[13] He was therefore instrumental in engineering a shift in Welsh Liberal policy towards favouring the right of tenants to purchase their holdings.

[14] A renewed opportunity for election to the House of Commons arose in 1905 as a result of dissatisfaction in the Carmarthen Boroughs constituency with the sitting member, Alfred Davies.

In 1921, Williams fought the 1921 Cardiganshire by-election as an anti-Coalition Liberal, opposing Ernest Evans, Lloyd George's Private Secretary, the Coalition candidate.

[17] Although he lost, Williams performed well and was generally felt to have won a moral victory, forcing Evans to rely on Conservative votes for his election.

He wrote a number of short works in Welsh, including Gwilym a Benni Bach and Gwr y Dolau, which were popular in their day.

[1] He published a number of scholarly articles on Welsh history, notably on the Tudor period, under the auspices the Cymmrodorion.