People of Note
Baron Thomas Williams of Barnburgh (1888–1967)
Thomas Williams, trade unionist and politician, was born at Blackwell, in Derbyshire, on 18 March 1888, the son of James Williams (d. 1913), a miner, and his wife, Mary Ann Parton (d. 1924).
The family moved to Swinton in 1890. Thomas left school and began work at nearby Kilnhurst colliery when he was eleven. When he was twenty he moved to Wath Main colliery and was elected to the Yorkshire Miners' Association.
He married Elizabeth Ann Andrews (d. 1977) in 1910. They had a son (who married the daughter of Herbert Morrison) and a daughter.
He became steward of the local Working Men's Club and after attending evening classes he became a pit deputy. He moved to Elsecar Main and in 1915 to Barnburgh Main Colliery.
He was soon elected branch secretary and then branch delegate for the Yorkshire Miners' Association in Barnsley.
After the first World War, he became a member of the British Socialist Party for a while until joining the Labour Party.
In 1918 he was a poor law guardian for Doncaster, the following year he was elected a member of Bolton-on- Dearne Urban District Council. He served as MP for Don Valley from 1922 until he retired from the Commons in 1959.
Tom Williams died at his home in Doncaster, on 29 March 1967.
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