Emlyn Hooson, Baron Hooson (Q60529)

Emlyn Hooson (Hugh Emlyn Hooson), later Lord Hooson, was born in 1925, the son of Hugh and Elsie Hooson, in Colomendy, Denbighshire. He was educated at Denbigh Grammar School, University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, and Grays Inn, London. He was called to the Bar in 1949. He married Shirley Margaret Wynne, daughter of Sir George Hamer, CBE, in 1950. They had two daughters. He was the Liberal MP for Montgomeryshire, 1962-1979. In the early 1960s, Emlyn Hooson and other Welsh Liberals, including Lord Ogmore, Martin Thomas QC, G. W. Madoc Jones and Geraint Howells, began pursuing Welsh devolution within the Liberal Party. An independent Welsh Liberal Party with federated links to the Party organisation based in London was established in September 1966. Welsh Liberals championed devolution at Westminster. He unsuccessfully introduced the Government of Wales Bill on St David's Day 1967, which proposed a Welsh Parliament. Between 1974 and 1979 he campaigned with other Liberals for a Welsh Assembly. In the 1979 general election he lost his Montgomeryshire seat. Soon afterwards he was elevated to the House of Lords as life peer Baron Hooson of Montgomery. In 1960, he was made QC, and was a Recorder of the Crown Court, 1972-1993. Lord Hooson is a prominent businessman and has been Director, 1985-1996, and Chairman, 1996-1996, of Laura Ashley plc, and Severn River Crossing plc, 1991-2000. He succeeded the late Lord Edmund-Davies as President of the Cambrian Law Review and has been the Hon. Professional Fellow of the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, since 1971. He was also the Vice-Chairman of the Political Committee of the North Atlantic Assembly, 1975-1979. He also founded Chambers in 1950, and in the 1970s it moved to Sedan House; it is a general common law set of Barristers' Chambers.