Hywel Francis is conferred as new Llafur President
25/01/2020Hywel Francis has been conferred as the President of Llafur: the Welsh People’s History Society at its Annual General Meeting in Cardiff on 16 November 2019. He succeeds the late Professor Ieuan Gwynedd Jones who died in 2018 and who had taught Hywel at Swansea University in the 1960s.
The new President was one of the founders of Llafur in 1970 and served as its treasurer, secretary, chair and vice president during the subsequent decades.
Hywel was a founder of the South Wales Miners’ Library, Coalfield Archive and the Community University of the Valleys at Swansea University, where he was Professor of Continuing Education.
He is the author of several books on the South Wales miners, most recently his collection of essays Stories of Solidarity (2018).
While serving as the Member of Parliament for Aberavon (2001-2015), he became chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Archives and History, during which time he established a permanent photographic history on Chartism in Parliament. He is now an Emeritus Professor at Swansea University where he is actively involved in preparing for the University’s Centenary in 2020 and the future development of the South Wales Miners’ Library and its 50th anniversary in 2023.
Hywel said of his appointment,
“It is a great honour to become President of Llafur and to succeed my mentor and friend Ieuan Gwynedd Jones who did so much for the Society over the years. I look forward to working with the members to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Society at Swansea in September 2020 and ensure that its future remains true to its roots in our people’s history.”