Dafydd Elis-Thomas
Welsh politician (1946–2025)
Dafydd Elis Elis-Thomas, Baron Elis-Thomas, (né Thomas; 18 October 1946 – 7 February 2025) was a Welsh politician who served as the leader of Plaid Cymru from 1984 to 1991 and represented the Dwyfor Meirionnydd constituency in the Senedd from 1999 to 2021.
Born in Carmarthen, Wales, he was raised in Ceredigion and the Conwy Valley. He represented Merioneth and later Meirionnydd Nant Conwy as a member of Parliament (MP) from 1974 to 1992, and was Presiding Officer of the National Assembly for Wales from the office's inception in 1999 to 2011. Elis-Thomas was a member of the House of Lords and a privy counsellor from 1992 and 2004, respectively, until his death.
From 2007 to 2017 he was the Chancellor of Bangor University. In 2016, he left Plaid Cymru to support Carwyn Jones's government in the Senedd, sitting as an independent. He joined the Welsh government in November 2017 and was Minister for Culture, Sport and Tourism until May 2021. Elis-Thomas applied to rejoin Plaid Cymru in August 2023, but withdrew his application later in the year.
Background
Dafydd Elis Thomas was born on 18 October 1946 at Priory Hospital, Carmarthen, and brought up in the Llandysul area of Ceredigion, and in Llanrwst in the Conwy Valley. In 1970, he married Elen Williams and had three sons.
“Dafydd Elis-Thomas” enters the record as welsh politician (1946–2025). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Dafydd, Elis-Thomas and Welsh can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Dafydd Elis-Thomas” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Dafydd, Elis-Thomas and Welsh provides the most credible route into that argument.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q333841. VIAF identifies the subject as 66212742. The Library of Congress control number is no2005099844. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1946, 2025, 1984 and 1991.
A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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Three-step research path
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This entry incorporates text from “Dafydd Elis-Thomas” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.