David Llewellyn Mort was a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 Labour Party

Labour Party (UK)

The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

 politician.

Born in Briton Ferry

Briton Ferry

Briton Ferry is a town and community in the county borough of Neath Port Talbot, Wales. The town encompasses the electoral wards of Briton Ferry East and Briton Ferry West....

, Glamorgan

Glamorgan

Glamorgan or Glamorganshire is one of the thirteen historic counties and a former administrative county of Wales. It was originally an early medieval kingdom of varying boundaries known as Glywysing until taken over by the Normans as a lordship. Glamorgan is latterly represented by the three...

, he left school aged thirteen when his father died. After initially working in an outfitters shop, he subsequently entered the local steel works. From the age of sixteen he was a preacher in the Congregational Church

Congregational church

Congregational churches are Protestant Christian churches practicing Congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its own affairs....

.

Mort joined the Independent Labour Party

Independent Labour Party

The Independent Labour Party was a socialist political party in Britain established in 1893. The ILP was affiliated to the Labour Party from 1906 to 1932, when it voted to leave...

 in 1906, and in 1915 became South Wales secretary of the Steel Trades Confederation

Iron and Steel Trades Confederation

The Iron and Steel Trades Confederation was a British trade union for metal-workers and allied groups. It was formed on 1 January 1917 as a merger of existing steel-workers' unions and it is now part of Community.- History :...

. He was also involved in local politics as a member of Briton Ferry Urban District Council

Urban district

In the England, Wales and Ireland, an urban district was a type of local government district that covered an urbanised area. Urban districts had an elected Urban District Council , which shared local government responsibilities with a county council....

 and Neath

Neath

Neath is a town and community situated in the principal area of Neath Port Talbot, Wales, UK with a population of approximately 45,898 in 2001...

 Borough Council

Municipal borough

Municipal boroughs were a type of local government district which existed in England and Wales between 1835 and 1974, in Northern Ireland from 1840 to 1973 and in the Republic of Ireland from 1840 to 2002...

.

At the 1929 general election

United Kingdom general election, 1929

-Seats summary:-References:*F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987*-External links:***...

, he was elected as Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 (MP) for Eccles

Eccles (UK Parliament constituency)

Eccles was a parliamentary constituency of the United Kingdom, centred on the town of Eccles in Greater Manchester, England. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post system.- History :The constituency...

. The Second Labour Government formed after the election subsequently collapsed and a National Government was formed. The government went to the country in a general election in October 1931

United Kingdom general election, 1931

The United Kingdom general election on Tuesday 27 October 1931 was the last in the United Kingdom not held on a Thursday. It was also the last election, and the only one under universal suffrage, where one party received an absolute majority of the votes cast.The 1931 general election was the...

. Mort, along with the majority of Labour MPs, lost his seat.

Mort stood, unsuccessfully, at the 1935 general election

United Kingdom general election, 1935

The United Kingdom general election held on 14 November 1935 resulted in a large, though reduced, majority for the National Government now led by Conservative Stanley Baldwin. The greatest number of MPs, as before, were Conservative, while the National Liberal vote held steady...

 in Bilston

Bilston (UK Parliament constituency)

Bilston was a parliamentary constituency centred on the town of Bilston in what is now the southeast of the city of Wolverhampton in the West Midlands...

. He was returned to the House of Commons as MP for Swansea East

Swansea East (UK Parliament constituency)

Swansea East is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.- Boundaries :The constituency comprises the electoral wards of Bonymaen, Cwmbwrla, Landore, Llansamlet, Morriston, Mynydd-Bach, Penderry, and St.Thomas...

 at an unopposed by-election in 1940

Swansea East by-election, 1940

The Swansea East by-election, 1940 was a parliamentary by-election held for the British House of Commons constituency of Swansea East on 8 May 1933...

, following the death of the Labour MP David Williams

David Williams (Swansea politician)

David Williams was a Welsh Labour Party politician. The second son of David and Mary Williams, his father worked at the local Kilvey Copper Works. Williams received little education before entering service in 1877 as a pageboy for the Genfell family of Kilvey, Swansea, owners of the copper works...

. He held the seat until his own death in 1963, triggering another by-election

Swansea East by-election, 1963

The Swansea East by-election, 1963 was a parliamentary by-election held for the British House of Commons constituency of Swansea East on 28 March 1963....

.

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