William Brace

William Brace (23 September 1865 – 12 October 1947) was a Welsh trade unionist and Liberal and Labour politician.

Biography

Born in Risca, in the coal-mining district of Monmouthshire, he was one of six children of Thomas and Anne Brace. Brace briefly attended school before starting work at the local colliery, aged 12. He later worked at Celynnen and Abercarn collieries He soon involved himself in trade union activities and politics and in 1890 was elected the local agent for the South Wales Miners Association. He was also elected to Monmouthshire County Council.

Brace was an early advocate of a single union for all of Britain's colliers, an issue in which he clashed with William Abraham. Following the Welsh coal strike of 1898 the Miners' Association became part of the new South Wales Miners' Federation, and Brace was elected its first vice-president. He was later to the union's president from 1912 to 1915.

At the 1906 general election he was elected as a Liberal-Labour member of parliament for South Glamorganshire, holding the seat at the next two general elections. He continued taking the Liberal whip for some years, despite the Miners' Federation of Great Britain, which sponsored him, having affiliated to the Labour Party in 1909. During the First World War he held the post of Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department in Lloyd George Coalition Government. He was made a Privy Counsellor in 1916. When the South Glamorganshire seat was abolished at the 1918 general election, he was elected unopposed to represent the new Abertillery seat, this time as Labour Party MP.