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Leif Jones

British politician

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 7, 2026
Entity authorityQ6519485
Source-derived summary

Leifchild Stratten Leif-Jones, 1st Baron Rhayader, PC (né Leifchild Stratten Jones; 16 January 1862 – 26 September 1939), known as Leif Jones before his elevation to the peerage in 1932, was a British Temperance movement leader and Liberal politician.

Background and education

He was born Leifchild Stratten Jones on 16 January 1862 in St Pancras, London, the fifth of the six children of Thomas Jones (1819–1882), an Independent clergyman, formerly of Morriston, Swansea, and Jane Jones, daughter of John Jones of Dowlais. His elder siblings were David Brynmor (b. 1851), Annie, John Viriamu (b. 1862), and Irvonwy; his younger brother was Morlais Glasfryn. His brothers David Brynmor Jones and John Viriamu Jones both went on to achieve prominence in public life.

In 1867, when Leifchild was five years old, his mother died, and, in 1869, his father left London, for health reasons, moving firstly back to Swansea (1870–1877) and afterwards to Melbourne, Australia (1877–1880), where Leifchild was educated at Scotch College, Melbourne, from 31 July 1877 to December 1878. Subsequently Leifchild became a student at Trinity College, Oxford.

Member of Parliament and temperance campaigner

In May 1900 he contested the South Manchester constituency in a by-election, losing to the Liberal Unionist candidate. From 1905 to January 1910 Leif Jones served as Member of Parliament for Appleby, in Westmorland.

Editorial summary

“Leif Jones” enters the record as british politician. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Leif, Jones and British can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1862, 1939, 1932, 1819—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—1862-01-16, 1862—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Leif, Jones and British.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Leif Jones” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Leif, Jones and British provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

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 May 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6519485. VIAF identifies the subject as 4026150203821303250001. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1862, 1939, 1932 and 1819.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. 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.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Leif Jones”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Leif Jones primary sources, Leif Jones archive and Leif research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Leif Jones”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Leif Jones” 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.