As John Morris he was the Labour MP for Aberavon, Oct 1959-2001. Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Power, 1964-66; Joint Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Transport 1966-68; Minister of Defence (Equipment) 1968-70; Secretary of State for Wales 1974-79; Opposition spokesman on legal affairs and Shadow Attorney General 1983-97; Attorney General, 1997-99; Member of the Committee of Privileges, 1994-1997; sometime Chancellor of the University of Glamorgan, &c.
He was 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. Following the death of the 29th Earl of Crawford & Balcarres, 18 March 2023, Morris and Stratton Mills became the surviving former MPs with the earliest date of first election, having first entered Parliament at the 1959 general election.
He was born 5 Nov, 1931, son of D.W. Morris, of Penywem, Talybont, Cardiganshire, and his wife Mary Olwen Anne Edwards, and educated at University College of Wales, Aberystwyth.
He was sworn of the Privy Council in 1970, appointed a QC in 1973, knighted in 1999, and on leaving the Commons in 2001 he was raised to the peerage of life as Baron Morris of Aberavon, of Aberavon in the County of West Glamorgan and of Ceredigian in the County of Dyfed.
In 2003 he was appointed a Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter. His demise brings the number of vacancies in England's highest order of chivalry to six. The other vacancies are caused by the deaths of Sir Timothy Colman (9 Sept, 2021), Lord Sainsbury of Preston Candover (14 January, 2022), Lord Inge (20 July, 2022), Lord Boyce (8 Nov, 2022), and Sir David Brewer (28 May, 2023).
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