Community & Civic Life

Alderman William Jones Thomas

William Jones Thomas had a distinguished past before becoming a county councillor for Breconshire when the council was first established in 1889.

Alderman Jones Thomas was born on 12th December 1839 and was educated at Harrow and then Sandhurst. He rose to the rank of Captain in the Dragoon Guards and was awarded a medal for service in the Indian Mutiny before retiring from the Guards in 1870. He commanded the Radnorshire Militia and then the combined battalions when the militia merged with Breconshire to become the Royal South Wales Borderers.

His father was vicar of Llanigon, Rev William Jones Thomas of Llanthomas, who was also a Justice of the Peace and wealthy landowner. There were eleven children in the family. One of his daughters, Fanny, was the object of the affections of Rev Kilvert, who later became a renowned diarist. He called her Daisy and asked to marry her. However, he was refused; as a curate, Kilvert was considered too lowly a match for the daughter of a landed family. Daisy never married. She died in 1928.

In 1891, Alderman Jones Thomas was living at Llanthomas in a house full of women:

He died at the age of 69 and the Llanigon Parish register records him as having been buried on 27th September 1909.