Biography Dr J. Graham Jones looks at the life and political career of the contentious, individualistic, right-wing Liberal MP for Cardiganshire from 1945 until 1966, Captain E. Roderic Bowen MP (1913–2001) Grimond’sGrimond’s RivalRival van Roderic Bowen was born at the small Cardiganshire since , and R. Hopkin Morris, market town of Cardigan on the coast of Independent Liberal MP for the county, –, E west Wales on August , the son of a re- who subsequently re-entered the Commons as Lib- tired businessman who had been much involved in eral MP for neighbouring Carmarthenshire in . local Liberal politics. He always proudly recalled his He was also approached in connection with the Lib- family’s active involvement in local Liberal politics eral vacancy at Brecon & Radnor. He played some even when he was a small boy when he had dyed his part in Liberal activities in south Wales and came pet terrier in the Liberal colours. Educated at Cardi- into contact with the leading Liberals in the area. gan Council School and Cardigan County School, In June , after the wholly unexpected death he graduated with first class honours in law at both of county MP D. O. Evans, Bowen was chosen, per- the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth (forty haps surprisingly, as the Liberal candidate for his na- miles from his home), and St John’s College, Cam- tive Cardiganshire over the heads of a number of bridge. Periods at the Inns of Court and on the con- prominent local Liberals. In the ensuing general tinent led to the call to the bar by the Middle Tem- election campaign no Conservative contender ap- ple in . Bar practice commenced in , peared, and the Liberal platform focused primarily Bowen taking chambers at Cardiff and practising on on an attack on ‘the rigid and inflexible policy of the South Wales circuit. At the outbreak of hostilities, Socialism’. The Labour candidate in the county was he twice volunteered for military service, but was re- Iwan Morgan, an economist and Cardiff university jected on medical grounds before, in , at his lecturer with strong Cardiganshire connections. Al- third dogged attempt, securing acceptance as a pri- though the absence of a Tory candidate meant that vate, in which capacity he served for eighteen Bowen’s election to parliament was nigh on certain, months. Securing a commission in the autumn of D. O. Evans, in his last public appearance in the , he was an officer for six months before being county shortly before his death, had warned local appointed chief instructor in administration of pay Liberals that, ‘It would be very unwise to be over- duties at a school for officers under the Southern confident. That attitude of mind would only breed Command. Bowen was later seconded to the staff of complacency.’ In the event he was probably over- the Judge-Advocate General to the Forces, and to- cautious, for Bowen defeated Morgan by the wide wards the end of the war participated in duties asso- margin of votes, by far the highest majority of ciated with Courts Martial, Courts for Prisoners of the twelve Liberal MPs returned in , the new War and the preparation of cases against National MP immediately describing the outcome as ‘a vic- War Criminals. tory for personal and political freedom … a defeat As a barrister, his work often focused on work- for bureaucracy and state control’. ‘The young up- men’s compensation and he took a particular inter- start’, chosen against the odds only a few weeks ear- est in local government administration. His devotion lier, had, it seemed, already proved his worth. At the to Welsh culture was reflected in his involvement in same time veteran Liberal Sir Rhys Hopkin Morris the activities of the Honourable Society of narrowly captured highly marginal Carmarthen- Cymmrodorion and Urdd Gobaith Cymru (the Welsh shire, the only Labour loss in the whole of the League of Youth), while he also served as legal advi- United Kingdom, and an enormous personal tri- sor to the local Teifi Net Fishermen’s Association. umph for him. Bowen’s Liberal antecedents were notable. He ad- Short, stout, bespectacled and balding, Roderic dressed a number of political meetings in support of Bowen entered the House of Commons in as D. O. Evans, his predecessor as Liberal MP for one of a tiny fragment of twelve Liberal MPs, no 26 Journal of Liberal Democrat History 34/35 Spring/Summer 2002 fewer than seven of whom represented Bowen was generally well-liked at Cardiganshire Tories and local social- Welsh divisions. Morale within their Westminster. His sole critics at the ists were ‘collaborating in their efforts ranks was inevitably at an all-time low, Commons, it seems, were verbatim re- to oust the Liberal member’. His for the party had been ravaged beyond porters; when he moved a motion in heartfelt pessimism was clearly shared belief at the recent poll in a socialist to appoint a royal commission on by party leader Clement Davies, who landslide which had engulfed even war pensions, it took him all of sixty- dejectedly wrote to his predecessor, Sir party leader Sir Archibald Sinclair (by eight minutes. Archibald Sinclair, in the early days of the agonisingly slim margin of votes) Generally Roderic Bowen tended to the new year, ‘I do not know whether at Caithness & Sutherland, and its chief be critical of the policies and conduct I shall be back here … Even if I do whip, Sir Percy Harris, at Bethnal of the Attlee administrations. As severe pull it off, it will be “a damned near Green South-West. Other casualties in- economic depression hit the country thing”. … Each of us in Wales will cluded Sir William Beveridge at Ber- during the winter of –, he told have a very tough fight.’ ‘No-one wick-upon-Tweed, James de his local Liberal Association that the knows who will be here’ was his pessi- Rothschild on the Isle of Ely and vet- onset of slump was ‘because the Gov- mistic conclusion only days later. eran Sir Goronwy Owen at ernment had concentrated on political Again Iwan Morgan, reluctantly re-se- Caernarfonshire. Even so, some long- dogma rather than on facing immediate lected by the Cardiganshire Labour serving Liberal MPs remained at West- economic difficulties’, warning that Party as its candidate, could point the minster, and initially Bowen was both Aneurin Bevan’s embryonic Na- finger at Roderic Bowen’s unimpres- dwarfed in stature by such figures as tional Health Service and the National sive and inconsistent voting record in Clement Davies (Montgomeryshire), Insurance Act were ‘being threatened the Commons lobbies. An intense soon to be elected ‘chairman’ (if not by the growing danger of inflation’. three-cornered fray threatened to un- leader) of the fragmented Parliamen- As the members of the fractious Parlia- dermine Bowen’s position; in his care- tary Liberal Party, Lady Megan Lloyd mentary Liberal Party displayed highly fully phrased election address he George (Anglesey), self-appointed inconsistent, even bizarre, voting pointedly noted ‘the intervention of a champion of the party’s left wing, her records in the Commons lobbies, Bo- third candidate’ which, he felt, had brother Major Gwilym Lloyd George wen’s personal performance at the ‘subsequently increased the danger of (Pembrokeshire), a notable political House came under scrutiny, provoking the socialist being returned’. In the maverick moving swiftly to the right, him to retort that ‘he had always voted event, his personal anxiety was mis- Tom Horabin (North Cornwall), an- as his judgement dictated’, and to point placed, for he was re-elected by a ma- other left-wing radical and the new to his support for the setting up of the jority of no fewer than , votes Liberal chief whip, and Edgar Granville National Health Service. He asserted over Morgan, again the highest margin (Eye). They were indeed ‘a motley that, by following their consciences on enjoyed by any of the nine Liberal group’, totally lacking in cohesion, each major issue, the small group of MPs returned. Bowen had captured with no common political philosophy Liberal MPs constituted ‘a far more per cent of the Cardiganshire vote, and or parliamentary strategy, ever ready to critical opposition to the Government his was the only division apart from dissent, even rebel, some of its members than the Official Opposition did’. Yet, Montgomeryshire where the Liberals perched on opposing poles of the po- although highly critical of doctrinaire had secured an absolute majority in a litical spectrum. socialism, Bowen doggedly renounced three-cornered contest. Thereafter he Bowen was soon to make his mark an overture from the local Conservative was not to face a Conservative oppo- in the Commons as a dextrous, amusing Party that a joint candidate might stand nent until October . debater, but clearly on the right wing of at the next general election, rejoicing in When the second Attlee administra- his tiny party, and generally reluctant to the decision of the Cardiganshire Lib- tion, with its much reduced overall ma- break ranks with the party leadership, eral Party to reject out-of-hand an ap- jority, was compelled to go to the coun- always adhering closely to the official proach from Sir Arthur Harford, chair- try again in the autumn of , party line – ‘the plump Welshman with man of the Cardiganshire Conserva- Roderic Bowen, now facing a sole La- the polished manner’. Lord Emlyn tives, that the two parties might field a bour opponent, Revd. Brynmor Hooson has written of both Roderic joint candidate at the forthcoming Williams, vicar of Llansamlet, was sure of Bowen and R. Hopkin Morris in the election. Ironically, in the neighbouring re-election, increasing his majority to – parliament as determined to Pembrokeshire constituency a formal ,, again the highest of the six Lib- ‘have nothing whatever to do with the ‘Lib–Con’ pact was formed to support eral MPs returned to Westminster, al- Labour Party and socialism and were the re-election of National Liberal (or though the turnout in Cardiganshire regarded as being of the right’.