Rhys Hopkin Morris

Sir Rhys Hopkin Morris (5 September 1888 – 22 November 1956) was a Welsh Liberal politician who was a Member of Parliament from 1923–1932 and from 1945–1956.

Hopkin Morris was educated at University of North Wales Bangor and qualified as a barrister, being called to the Bar in 1920. A classic "laissez-faire liberal", Hopkin Morris supported Herbert Henry Asquith against David Lloyd George when the party split between 1916 and 1923, and would remain fiercely opposed to Lloyd George and interventionist Liberalism throughout his political career.

In 1922 Hopkin Morris contested the general election as a pro Asquith Liberal in Cardiganshire, narrowly losing to the sitting pro-Lloyd George Liberal MP Ernest Evans. The following year the Liberal Party reunited but Hopkin Morris ran as an Independent Liberal against Evans. In one of the most surprising results of the 1923 general election Hopkin Morris was elected. In the follow year's general election he was returned unopposed as an official Liberal candidate.

His opposition to both Lloyd George and the introduction of tariffs resulted in his remaining with the official ("Samuelite") Liberals when the party split three ways in advance of the 1931 general election. The following year Hopkin Morris was appointed as a Metropolitan Police magistrate. He gave up his seat in consequence: the post was an 'office of profit under the Crown' and incompatible with membership of the House of Commons.

Thirteen years later Hopkin Morris returned to Parliament in a once more sensational result. In the 1945 general election he successfully won Carmarthen, taking the seat from the Labour Party's Ronw Moelwyn Hughes despite the rest of the country experiencing a Labour landslide. Hopkin Morris was to hold the seat for the remainder of his life.

In 1951 he became Deputy Chairman of Ways and Means in the House of Commons and thus one of the Deputy Speakers. This post, together with his age, combined to exclude him for consideration for the Liberal Party leadership when Clement Davies stood down in October 1956. Hopkin Morris died the following month.

Throughout his career Hopkin Morris was a staunch individualist, once summing up his political philosophy as, "There is no man alive who is sufficiently good to rule the life of the man next door to him!" Many have regarded him as being the last representative of traditional Gladstonian Liberalism in the Commons.

References

*
*"Rhys Hopkin Morris: The Man and his Character" by T J Evans, (Gomerian Press, Llandyssul), 1957
*Sir Rhys Hopkin Morris by J Graham Jones, in Brack et al (eds.) "Dictionary of Liberal Biography" (Politico's), 1998
*Rayment----

Further reading

Rhys Hopkin Morris, The man and his character: T J Evans (introduction by Herbert Samuel), Gomerian Press, Llandyssul, 1958----