John Morris, Baron Morris of Aberavon

John Morris, Baron Morris of Aberavon (5 November 1931 – 5 June 2023) was a Welsh politician. He was a Labour Party Member of Parliament for over 41 years, from 1959 to 2001, which included a period as Secretary of State for Wales from 1974 to 1979 and as Attorney General between 1997 and 1999. A native Welsh speaker, he was the last living former Labour MP who was first elected in the 1950s. He was also the last surviving member of Harold Wilson's 1974–76 cabinet, and was the longest-serving Privy Counsellor at the time of his death. His combined parliamentary service totalled over 60 years. He was educated at the Ardwyn School, the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.

In 1959, Morris married Margaret Lewis, and they had three daughters.

Morris served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Power and the Ministry of Transport, and Minister of State at the Ministry of Defence. Morris joined the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Wales between 5 March 1974 and 4 May 1979 and returned to Government as the Attorney General for England and Wales and Northern Ireland between 1997 and 1999, having shadowed the role since 1983. As such, he was one of only a small handful of Labour ministers to hold office under Harold Wilson, James Callaghan and Tony Blair.

Other positions held Morris was the Chancellor of the University of South Wales from the time of its formation in 2013. The University of South Wales was formed by a merger between University of Glamorgan (where Lord Morris was Chancellor from 2002) and the University of Wales, Newport. He succeeded fellow Labour politician Lord Merlyn-Rees as the Chancellor for the University of Glamorgan. Lord Morris was President of the London Welsh Trust, which runs the London Welsh Centre, Gray's Inn Road, from 2001 until 2008. He was also a council member of The Prince's Trust.

At the death of the 29th Earl of Crawford on 18 March 2023, Morris and Stratton Mills became the surviving former MPs with the earliest date of first election, both having first entered Parliament at the 1959 general election.

Honours Morris was raised to the peerage for life as Baron Morris of Aberavon, of Aberavon in the County of West Glamorgan and of Ceredigion in the County of Dyfed, in the 2001 Dissolution Honours, was made Lord Lieutenant of Dyfed a year later and was appointed to the Order of the Garter as a Knight Companion (KG) in 2003.

Arms