Pioneering politician who laid the foundations of devolution
Today, a bust of Jim Griffiths, the first Secretary of State for Wales, will be unveiled at the Senedd. The late MP for Llanelli deserves greater recognition for his role in advancing the cause of Welsh devolution, says Political editor-at-large Martin Sh
JIM Griffiths may have been 74 years old when he was appointed the first Secretary of State for Wales in 1964, with a place in the Cabinet, after the election of Harold Wilson’s Labour government.
But it was a role whose existence he had campaigned for since the 1930s. Griffiths was a great campaigner. Born in the coal-mining village of Betws in Carmarthenshire’s Amman Valley in 1890, he was given the biblical first name Jeremiah by his devout chapel-going parents.
His father followed the family tradition and became a blacksmith. Politically he was a staunch Liberal whose heroes were William Gladstone, Tom Ellis and David Lloyd George.
Jim was influenced by the evangelical revivalist orators favoured by his father, but when he left school and went to work in the local colliery he became a member of the Independent Labour Party, whose ethos included socialism and pacifism.
He attended adult education classes in Ammanford, learning about economics in classes run under the auspices of the Central Labour College.
A large house in Ammanford’s High Street known as Ty Gwyn (the White House) became a centre for socialist activity in the Amman Valley during World War I.
Griffiths, who attended classes there, was exposed to the ideas of the pacifist minister the Rev TE Nicholas and of Marxists associated with the mining industry including Noah Ablett, WH Mainwaring and SO Davies, later the Labour MP for Merthyr Tydfil.
After the war – as a miner he hadn’t been obliged to join the forces – Griffiths continued his education after winning a miners’ union scholarship to attend a residential college in London for two years.
He greatly extended his knowledge of economics, industrial history, sociology and trade union law and practice.
After his time in college, he returned to Carmarthenshire and the coal industry, becoming chairman of the union lodge at Ammanford Colliery Number 1.
In September 1922 he became the Labour Party’s full-time agent in Llanelli – a post he held for three years until being appointed to the important role of miners’ agent for the South Wales Miners’ Federation.
For more than a decade he worked hard representing his members, and in 1934 he was elected President of the Federation.
His move into pure politics came two years later when he was elected MP for Llanelli in a by-election.
He quickly became regarded as a wise and dependable politician.
In 1944 he was invited to become a member of the Labour Party committee that developed a policy programme to put to the people of Britain after World War II was over.
Douglas Jay, a future Labour minister, stayed with Griffiths in his family home at Burry Port that year, later writing in his autobiography: “Jim Griffiths was almost unique in possessing all the Celtic oratorical gifts at their best and in full measure, and a high degree of practical common sense at the same time.
“He also represented admirably the old nonconformist conscience of the Labour movement, which was still strong in 1944.”
Griffiths had long hoped for a fully fledged welfare state and was delighted with the progress he saw the Labour government of Clement Attlee making between 1945 and 1950.
He had an important role in delivering improvements as the Minister of Pensions – a post he asked Attlee to appoint him to rather than his original offer of Minister of State for the Colonies.
Griffiths was responsible for the introduction of the Family Allowance. In fact, he can be credited as the creator of Britain’s social security system, which at the time was seen as the envy of the civilised world.
He also steered the Industrial Injuries Bill through the House of Commons, a piece of legislation that improved compensation for those who were injured at work.
Griffiths also pushed the case for a Secretary of State for Wales against opposition from senior ministers in the government like Herbert Morrison, the Deputy Prime Minister, and Stafford Cripps, President of the Board of Trade.
At the same time Griffiths argued the case for devolution to Wales, calling for the establishment of an advisory council or an economic council for Wales.
In 1950, having completed his work in establishing the social security system, Griffiths became the Minister for Colonial Affairs. He prepared the ground for a number of countries to become independent, including Trinidad and Tobago, Nigeria and Singapore.
Labour lost power at the general election in 1951 and Griffiths went with the rest of his party into 13 years of opposition.
In 1955, when he was 65, he became deputy leader of the Labour Party, with Hugh Gaitskell as the leader.
Gaitskell was more sympathetic to Wales and its needs than Attlee had been, and consideration was given more seriously to whether Wales should have a Secretary of State.
In 1957 the party’s Welsh Council agreed that it should.
Subsequent events, especially the drowning of the Tryweryn Valley to provide water for Liverpool, created a momentum within Wales in favour of administrative devolution.
When Labour won the 1964 general election, Griffiths was the obvious choice for Harold Wilson to appoint as the first Secretary of State for Wales, despite his advanced years.
Griffiths set himself three tasks: to establish a new town in mid Wales, to create an elected Welsh Council and to strengthen the legal status of the Welsh language.
The first idea met strong opposition, the second was ahead of its time but the third was at least partially successful.
He stepped down as Secretary of State in 1966 and left Parliament in 1970.
In his biography Jim: The Life and Work of James Griffiths, author D Ben Rees summed up his contribution to Welsh devolution: “It was a great joy for him that the Welsh Labour Party was ready to respond positively [to the recommendation that Wales should have its own Assembly] and it was gratifying that his standpoint was being supported by four able politicians: Cledwyn Hughes, Goronwy Roberts, John Morris and Michael Foot.”
Sadly he did not live to see the establishment of the National Assembly, having died in 1975.