Sir John Dillwyn-Llewelyn, 1st Baronet
Sir John Talbot Dillwyn-Llewelyn, 1st Baronet was a British Conservative Member of Parliament who was notable for his links to Welsh sports.
Background and education
Llewelyn was the son of photographer and scientist John Dillwyn Llewelyn and Emma Thomasina Talbot, youngest daughter of Thomas Mansel Talbot and Lady Mary of Penrice, south Wales and a cousin of William Henry Fox Talbot. He was educated at Eton and later Christ Church, Oxford.Political career
Llewelyn was High Sheriff of Glamorgan in 1878 and Mayor of Swansea in 1891.In March 1888, Llewelyn contested the Gower by-election as a Conservative candidate. The Liberal ranks had been affected by divisions over the choice of candidate and Llewelyn ran a strong campaign. Unusually for a Conservative candidate he held meetings in nonconformist chapels, including one at Zoar, Ystalyfera which was said to have been well attended by the working men of the district. Llewelyn polled well although narrowly defeated by David Randell.
In 1889 he was elected as one of the first members of Glamorgan County Council and was immediately made an alderman, to which role he was re-elected in 1895. He was created a baronet, 'of Penllergaer in Llangyfelach and of Ynys-y-gerwn in Cadoxton juxta Neath both in the County of Glamorgan', on 20 March 1890.
In 1892, following the death of his uncle, Lewis Llewelyn Dillwyn, Llewelyn was adopted as Conservative candidate for the Swansea Town constituency but was defeated by R.D. Burnie. However he reversed the result three years later when he was elected Conservative MP for Swansea in the 1895 general election, but lost the seat in 1900.
Llewelyn's connections to sport included the position of captain of the South Wales Cricket Club and in 1885 he replaced the Earl of Jersey as the president of the Welsh Rugby Union; a post he would hold until 1906, when he was replaced by Horace Lyne. Lyne himself stated that 'they had been singularly fortunate in getting a gentleman like Mr J.T.D. Llewelyn to act in that captaincy'.