Tag: William Pritchard Morgan

William Pritchard Morgan was born in Usk in 1844, son of William Morgan, an eminent Wesleyan preacher, who died when the young William was just eight years of age.  Following his education, he was articled to Robert James Cathcart, a solicitor in Newport, but in 1867, following a ‘lively quarrel’ with Cathcart, Morgan left the firm, and indeed the country, emigrating to Queensland in Australia.

In Australia, he took advantage of the skills he had learned in Newport and gained a reputation as a mining lawyer. He also became largely interested in gold-mining ventures in North Queensland, investing money whenever he could. Within twenty years, William Pritchard Morgan was a millionaire.

In 1885 he returned to England and established the mercantile firm of W. Pritchard Morgan & Co. in Queen Victoria Street, London. Fascinated by the many reports that gold had been found in Wales, however, he bought a mansion on a mountain in Dolgellau – and began digging.  Convinced he could succeed where others had failed Morgan, by force of both his personality and his money, set about transforming the mining of gold in Wales. Shortly after taking over the Gwynfynydd mine in Dolgellau in 1887 Morgan’s faith was vindicated when he hit a large pocket of gold. So fabulous was this discovery that he declared to the whole of Britain there was enough gold in Wales to pay off the national debt. His mine, he said, was going be one of the richest in the world – and as there were fifty other sites in North Wales there was every reason to believe that gold would be found in huge quantities.

Morgan’s announcements sent the national press into frenzy. Story after story appeared and every development at Gwynfynydd was enthusiastically reported which in turn brought any array of visitors, from royalty to hordes of sailors who hiked up the mountain on their days off. Morgan became a celebrity and earned the sobriquet ‘The Welsh Gold King’, and with his new found fame pursued his passion for politics.

In October 1888 a vacancy occurred in the representation of Merthyr Tydfil in the House of Commons.  Morgan thereupon became a candidate in the Independent Liberal Party and was returned by a very large majority over the Official Liberal nominee, Richard Foulkes Griffiths.

At that time, the Merthyr Tydfil Constituency had two M.P.s, the second member for the district being David Alfred Thomas, Viscount Rhondda, standing for the Official Liberal Party. The two M.P.s clashed from the outset, but the major political issue between them was attitude to the Second Boer War, supported by Morgan who was on the Liberal imperialist wing of the party. Morgan was also in favour of Welsh disestablishment, making a lengthy parliamentary speech on a resolution in 1891, but his views on disestablishment differed from those of Thomas.

During the campaigning for the 1900 election, Keir Hardie, representing the new Independent Labour Party had launched his bid to become the junior member for Merthyr. Such was the animosity between William Pritchard Morgan and David Alfred Thomas, that Thomas actively supported Keir Hardie. Hardie duly defeated Morgan, becoming one of the first Labour Members of Parliament.

Following his defeat, Morgan retired from politics, and in the words of his contemporaries became a ‘Will of the Wisp’, flitting from place to place, and transferring his mining interests from Wales to the Far East. He reaped the rewards of his investments, living in comfort into his old age, dying on 5 July 1924.