Elwyn Jones, Baron Elwyn-Jones


Frederick Elwyn Jones, Baron Elwyn-Jones, CH, PC, known as Elwyn Jones, was a Welsh barrister and Labour politician.

Background and education

Elwyn Jones was born in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, and read History for a year at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, and then at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. He spent time in Germany in the 1930s.
An acting bombardier in the Royal Artillery, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant on 23 December 1939. He ended his service as a major.

Legal career

He became a barrister and Recorder of Merthyr Tydfil. He was also a broadcaster and journalist. He served as junior British Counsel during the Nuremberg Trials, and led for the prosecution at the Hamburg trial of Marshal Erich von Manstein in 1948.
In 1966, he led the prosecution of the Moors murderers, Ian Brady and Myra Hindley.

Political career

At the 1945 general election, he was elected as Labour Member of Parliament for Plaistow, east London. In 1950, he became MP for West Ham South, serving until 1974. In 1964, Elwyn Jones was sworn of the Privy Council and appointed Attorney General by Harold Wilson, a post he held until 1970.
In February 1974, he was once again elected to Parliament, now for Newham South, but left the House of Commons soon afterwards when he was made a life peer, as Baron Elwyn-Jones, of Llanelli in the County of Carmarthen and of Newham in Greater London. He then served as Lord Chancellor from 1974 to 1979, under Harold Wilson and James Callaghan. In 1976 he was made a Companion of Honour.

Personal life

In 1937, Elwyn Jones married Pearl "Polly" Binder, an artist from Manchester. The couple had three children: Josephine, Lou and Dan. Josephine became a researcher on Jacob Bronowski's TV series The Ascent of Man and married Francis Gladstone.
Elwyn Jones's brother, Idris, was captain of the Wales rugby union team in 1925, and was an industrial chemist who became Director General of Research Development for the National Coal Board.
Lord Elwyn-Jones died in December 1989, aged 80.