Lewis Llewelyn Dillwyn (19 May 1814 -19 June 1892) was a Welsh industrialist and
Liberal politician.
Dillwyn was born in
Swansea,
Wales, the second son of
Lewis Weston Dillwyn and Mary Dillwyn (formerly Adams, née Llewellyn). His father had been sent to Swansea by his father William, to take over the management of the
Cambrian Pottery, and lived at Sketty Hall. He was educated at
Bath, Somerset and joined his father in the management of the Cambrian Pottery in 1831. His father was a friend of the geologist
Henry De la Beche and Dillwyn and De la Beche carried out experiments on china clays and granites with the aim of improving the production of earthenware.[1] In 1838 Dillwyn married de la Beche's daughter Elizabeth and they lived at Hendrefoilan.
Dillwyn followed his father and his
Quaker antecedents in pursuing industry and commerce and radical politics. He was head of the firm of Dillwyn and Richards at the
Landore spelter-works and was a director of the
Great Western Railway and Chairman of the Glamorganshire Banking Co. He played a major part in the industrial development of Swansea. Later, he was associated with Siemens in the Landore-Siemens Steel Company, and became its chairman.[2] In 1859 he was appointed Captain in Glamorgansire Rifle Volunteers
Dillwyn was also active politically and in 1848 was Mayor of Swansea. In 1855 he was elected
Member of Parliament for
Swansea District and held the seat until 1885. He was then MP for the new constituency of
Swansea Town from 1885 to 1892. He was a conspicuous Radical and in parliament championed many causes including Cardiganshire farmers who were evicted for their votes in the 1868 election, and the Denbighshire tenantry who agitated against tithes in 1886-87. From 1870 he supported the disestablishment of the Welsh Church and in 1873 moved an anti-clerical amendment to the Endowed Schools Act. In 1887 Dillwyn and
Stuart Rendel affirmed the Welsh Liberal Party's support of Irish Home Rule.[4]
Dillwyn was a prominent member of the
Aborigines' Protection Society, a Fellow of the
Linnean Society and a Fellow of the
Geological Society and delivered talks on ornithology and natural history to the Royal Institution of South Wales.[5] One of the lectures was about
Labuan, a tiny British colony. Dillwyn, together with
James Motley, a fellow member of the RISW, published an illustrated volume, intended as first of a series, on the natural history of Labuan.[6] He was also a photographer, his brother
John Dillwyn Llewelyn being a pioneer photographer and botanist.
Dillwyn died in office at the age of 78. His only son and one daughter had predeceased him, but he left two daughters including the novelist Elizabeth
Amy Dillwyn. His nephew
John Talbot Dillwyn Llewellyn was later MP for Swansea.