View source for Herbert Lewis

{{Short description|Welsh politician}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2022}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2012}}
[[File:Herbert_Lewis.jpg|thumb|right|Herbert Lewis c1895]] 
[[File:Herbert Lewis MP.jpg|thumb|right|Herbert Lewis c1905]]
'''Sir John Herbert Lewis''' {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|GBE|PC}} (27 December 1858 – 10 November 1933) was a Welsh Liberal Party politician.

==Background and education==
Born at Mostyn Quay, Flintshire, Lewis was the only child of Enoch Lewis and Catherine Roberts. It is possible that Lewis was related to C.S. Lewis. He was educated at McGill University and Exeter College, Oxford.
[[File:A Big Task for a Little Man - JM Staniforth.png|thumb|Cartoon by [[J. M. Staniforth]] satirising Lewis' unsuccessful attempt to remove the Lords Spiritual from the House of Lords.]]
==Political career==
Lewis was the first Chairman of Flintshire County Council. He was Member of Parliament MP for Flint Boroughs 1892–1906. In 1894, he resigned the Liberal Whip in the so-called 'Welsh Revolt', joining David Alfred Thomas, David Lloyd George and Frank Edwards. In a letter to T. E. Ellis, Lewis wrote to his friend, then Chief Whip: 'I will never again fight a constituency as an official Liberal.' Although he later recanted, this episode was illustrative of Herbert Lewis' moral seriousness. With Lloyd George, Lewis was an enthusiastic supporter of Cymru Fydd, a nationalist movement within Welsh Liberalism. Along with Lloyd George and David Alfred Thomas, he opposed the Boer War at the 1900 General Election. He was elected for Flintshire in 1906; 
{{Election box begin | title=General election 1906: Flintshire
}}
{{Election box candidate with party link|
 |party = Liberal Party (UK)
 |candidate = '''Herbert Lewis'''
 |votes = 6,294
 |percentage = 63.8
 |change = +10.2
}}
{{Election box candidate with party link|
 |party = Conservative Party (UK)
 |candidate = Harold Edwards
 |votes = 3,572
 |percentage = 36.2
 |change = -10.2
}}
{{Election box majority|
 |votes = 2,722
 |percentage = 27.6
 |change = +20.4
}}
{{Election box turnout|
 |votes = 
 |percentage = 83.0
 |change = +4.6
}}
{{Election box hold with party link|
 |winner = Liberal Party (UK)
 |swing = +10.2
}}
{{Election box end}}
Lewis was a Lord of the Treasury, 1905–1908. He was re-elected twice in 1910, the second time unopposed;
{{Election box begin |
 |title=General election January 1910: Flintshire
}}
{{Election box candidate with party link|
 |party = Liberal Party (UK)
 |candidate = '''Herbert Lewis'''
 |votes = 6,610
 |percentage = 59.7
 |change = -4.1
}}
{{Election box candidate with party link|
 |party = Conservative Party (UK)
 |candidate = Henry Howard
 |votes = 4,454
 |percentage = 40.3
 |change = +4.1
}}
{{Election box majority|
 |votes = 2,156
 |percentage = 19.4
 |change = -8.2
}}
{{Election box turnout|
 |votes = 
 |percentage = 86.6
 |change = 
}}
{{Election box hold with party link|
 |winner = Liberal Party (UK)
 |swing = -4.1
}}
{{Election box end}}
Lewis was Parliamentary Secretary to the Local Government Board, 1909–1915. He was Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education, 1915–1922, and played a key role in drawing up the Education Act 1918, often known as the Fisher Act. 
At the 1918 general election he contested the new University of Wales constituency as a Coalition Liberal;
{{Election box begin |
 |title=General election 1918: University of Wales
}}
{{Election box candidate with party link|
 |party = Coalition Liberal
 |candidate = '''Herbert Lewis'''
 |votes = 739
 |percentage = 80.8
 |change = ''N/A''
}}
{{Election box candidate with party link|
 |party = Labour Party (UK)
 |candidate = Millicent Mackenzie
 |votes = 176
 |percentage = 19.2
 |change = ''N/A''
}}
{{Election box majority|
 |votes = 563
 |percentage = 61.6
 |change = ''N/A''
}}
{{Election box turnout|
 |votes = 915
 |percentage = 85.8
 |change = ''N/A''
}}
{{Election box win
 |winner = Liberal Party (UK)
 |swing = ''N/A''
}}
{{Election box end}}
He was offered a peerage on his retirement from Parliament in 1922, but declined the honour. He was appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE) in the 1922 Dissolution Honours List.

Lewis was made a Privy Counsellor in 1912, a freeman of the towns of Flint and Aberystwyth, Constable of Flint Castle, honorary LL.D of the University of Wales in 1918. He was awarded the gold medal of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion in 1927.

Lewis was a keen supporter of the National Library of Wales, located in Aberystwyth. In 1909 he became a Vice President of the Library. In 1925, while walking in the hills above the town prior to a meeting of the Library's council, Lewis suffered a fall down a quarry which left him paralyzed for the rest of his life. Although elected President of the Library in 1926, this was a largely honorific appointment.

An active lay member of the Calvinistic Methodist Connexion, Lewis was elected Moderator of the denomination in 1925, although he declined the post. He was an interested correspondent in the trial for unorthodoxy of Thomas Williams (Tom Nefyn). Among his other correspondents in religious matters was the Welsh Revivalist Evan Roberts.

==Personal life==
Sir John Herbert Lewis was married twice, first in 1886 to Adelaide (d. 1895), daughter of Charles Hughes, publisher, Wrexham and in 1897 to Ruth, daughter of Alice and W. S. Caine, MP. By his second marriage he had a son and a daughter. He resided at Plas Penucha, Caerwys, Flintshire. Lewis died at his home, Plas Penucha, in 1933.

== References ==
* National Library of Wales: Sir John Herbert Lewis Papers
* National Library of Wales: Lloyd George Papers
* National Library of Wales: T. E. Ellis Papers
* [https://biography.wales/article/s-LEWI-HER-1858 Dictionary of Welsh Biography]
*{{Rayment-hc|external links=y|date=March 2012}}

== Further reading ==
{{cite journal|last=Morgan|first=Kenneth O.|author-link = Kenneth O. Morgan|date=Winter 2007–2008|title=Lloyd George's Flintshire Loyalist: The Political Achievement of John Herbert Lewis|journal=Journal of Liberal History|publisher=Liberal Democrat History Group|issue=57|pages=18–30|issn=1479-9642|url=https://liberalhistory.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/57_Morgan_Lloyd_George__s_Flintshire_Loyalist.pdf}}

== External links ==
* {{Hansard-contribs | mr-john-lewis | Herbert Lewis }}

{{s-start}}
{{s-par|uk}}
{{succession box
 | title = Member of Parliament for Flint Boroughs
 | years = 1892 – 1906
 | before = John Roberts
 | after = Howell Idris
}}
{{succession box
 | title = Member of Parliament for Flintshire
 | years = 1906 – 1918
 | before = Samuel Smith
 | after = Tom Parry
}}

{{s-new | constituency}}
{{s-ttl
 | title = Member of Parliament for University of Wales
 | years = 1918 – 1922
}}
{{s-aft | after = Thomas Arthur Lewis }}
{{s-off}}
{{s-bef|before=Charles Masterman}}
{{s-ttl|title=Parliamentary Secretary to the Local Government Board|years= 1909&ndash;1915 }}
{{s-aft|after=William Hayes Fisher}}
{{s-bef|before=Christopher Addison}}
{{s-ttl|title=Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education|years= 1915&ndash;1922 }}
{{s-aft|after=Lord Eustace Percy}}
{{s-end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lewis, Herbert}}