Donald Coleman

Donald Richard Coleman, CBE, JP, DL (19 September 1925 – 14 January 1991) was the Labour Member of Parliament (MP) in the United Kingdom for Neath from 1964 until his death in 1991.

Early life Coleman was born in Barry, the son of a coalminer, Albert Archer Coleman, and his wife, Winifred Marguerite. For most of the inter-war years, his father was unemployed, and did not find permanent work until 1939. This instilled in his son a lifelong belief in the evils of unemployment.

He was educated at Cadoxton Boys' School and Cardiff Technical College. He later attended University College of Wales Swansea as a mature student between 1950 and 1954. He held a number of technical positions at various laboratories at Cardiff and Swansea before securing an appointment in 1954 as metallurgist to the Research Department of the Steel Company of Wales, Abbey Works, Port Talbot, in which position he remained until his election to parliament in the General Election of October 1964. Coleman had joined the Labour Party in November 1948 and became a member of the Co-operative Party in 1955. He had also stood as a Labour candidate for Swansea Borough Council in 1960. He was pronounced dead at St Mary's Hospital, London, and was cremated at Margam Crematorium. The Labour Party held his seat in the subsequent by-election, which was won by Peter Hain.