Llewellyn Heycock, Baron Heycock

Llewellyn Heycock, Baron Heycock CBE (12 August 1905 – 13 March 1990) was a Welsh local politician, who became a life peer in 1967.

Heycock was born in Margam and began his career as an engine driver with the Great Western Railway. He subsequently rose to a powerful position in South Wales local politics through his trade union connections and membership of the Labour Party, a "personality of transcendent authority".^[1] Despite having himself received little formal education, he became Chairman of the Glamorganshire Education Committee.

He was first elected to Glamorgan County Council in 1937 at a by-election following the re-election of long-serving miners' agent John Thomas of Pontrhydyfen as an alderman. Heycock was chosen as Labour candidate at the expense of Joe Brown, a former mayor of Port Talbot and a close associate of Ramsay Macdonald when he was MP for Aberavon. Brown resigned from the Labour Party in protest and stood as an Independent.^[2] However, Heycock held the seat by 569 votes.

In April 1967 he was elected as a county councillor to Glamorgan County Council for the Port Talbot East ward.^[3] In 1973 he was elected unopposed as councillor for Margam Central on the new West Glamorgan County Council.^[4]

He became a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1959,^[5] a Commander of the Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem (CStJ) in April 1967,^[6] and a life peer on 10 July 1967 as Baron Heycock, of Taibach in the Borough of Port Talbot.^[7]

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