Sir Abraham Garrod Thomas | |
Honorific-Suffix: | JP |
Office: | Member of Parliament for South Monmouthshire |
Term Start: | 13 July 1917 |
Term End: | 25 November 1918 |
Predecessor: | Ivor Herbert |
Successor: | Office Abolished |
Birth Date: | 5 October 1853 |
Birth Place: | Panteryrod, Cardiganshire, Wales |
Death Date: | 30 January 1931 (aged 77) |
Nationality: | Welsh |
Education: | Milford Haven |
Alma Mater: | University of Edinburgh |
Relatives: | John Aeron Thomas (brother) |
Sir Abraham Garrod Thomas (5 October 1853 – 30 January 1931) was a Welsh physician, philanthropist, magistrate, politician and Member of Parliament.
He was born at Panteryrod, near Aberaeron, in Cardiganshire, the son of Lewis Thomas; his older brother John Aeron Thomas, a solicitor and businessman, was also a Member of Parliament.[1] [2] [3] He was a Welsh speaker to age 13, and was educated at Milford Haven. At the University of Edinburgh he graduated M.B. in 1876, and that year also became a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. After graduation he studied at Berlin and Vienna. He became M.D. at Edinburgh in 1878,[4] and started work in Newport, Monmouthshire.[1] [2] In 1892 he founded the South Wales Argus.[5] In 1915 he donated the house at 25 Clytha Park, Newport for the treatment of tuberculous children.[6] He owned the Mansion House, Newport.[7]
Thomas was appointed High Sheriff of Cardiganshire for 1900. He was elected Liberal Member of Parliament for South Monmouthshire in a 1917 by-election, but did not stand again.[2] At the time of the Newport by-election, in 1922, he was President of the local Liberal Association and was first approached to stand as Liberal candidate, but in the end William Lyndon Moore was chosen, a neutral in the conflict between Asquith Liberals and supporters of Lloyd George.[8]
In 1879 Thomas married Eleanor, daughter of Richard Hughes Richards of Newport.[1] The chemist Richard Noel Garrod-Thomas was their son.[9]