Sybil Thomas
Sybil Margaret Haig, the fourth daughter in the family of five daughters and five sons of George Augustus Haig (1820–1906), merchant and landowner, and his wife, Anne Eliza Fell, was born at 52 Norfolk Square, Brighton, on 25 February 1857. (1)
Sybil had an impressive extended family with a long history proudly traced back to Petrus De Haga of the 12th century. Her father was related to Douglas Haig who during the First World War would be promoted to the rank of Field Marshall and commander in chief of the British Expeditionary Force. (2)
Sybil had seventy-two first cousins. An acquaintance described the clannish family as "a regular maelstrom... if you entered into friendly relations with them you had to become a Haig". (3)
George Haig became a successful agent in England for the sale of Scotch and Irish spirits. In 1858 he purchased 2,548 acres of land with eleven farms near the village of Llanbadarn Fynydd, between Llandrindod Wells and Newtown. In 1862 he designed and had built Pen Ithon Hall. Haig became High Sheriff for the county as well as a magistrate. (4)
Sybil Haig was a talented artist and painted miniatures and later exhibited some of her work in London galleries. In the summer of 1880 she met David Alfred Thomas of Ysguborwen, Glamorgan. Despite the objections of her father, George Haig, the couple got engaged in July 1881. (5)
On 27 June 1882, aged twenty-five, she married, David Alfred Thomas of Ysguborwen, Glamorgan. In 1888 Thomas became the Liberal MP for Merthyr Boroughs. Her husband's political career meant that she spent much time in London but their main home was a large house and estate at Llanwern, Monmouthshire. A daughter, Margaret Haig Thomas was born at Princes Square, Bayswater, on 12th June 1883. (6) Margaret later wrote: "My father was disappointed: he wanted a boy". (7)
Sybil Thomas and Women's Suffrage
David and Sybil's home in Llanwern had twelve rooms. They had a resident cook and a number of domestics. Margaret was taught by European governesses (French then German) before being educated at Notting Hill High School and St Leonards School. Margaret spent a lot of time with her fourteen first cousins. She also spent a lot of time with two aunts, Janet Boyd and Charlotte Haig. Like Sybil, the two aunts were strong feminists." (8)
Sybil Thomas took a strong interest in politics. In 1891 she became president of the Welsh Union of Women's Liberal Associations. She was also a member of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), under the leadership of Millicent Garrett Fawcettt. Some of her relatives, including her two sisters and her cousins, Florence Haig, Cecilia Wolseley Haig and Evelyn Haig, were supporters of the more militant, Women Social & Political Union. (9)
Sybil Thomas gradually became frustrated by the lack of success in achieving women's suffrage and when her young daughter, Margaret Haig Thomas, announced her intention to join the Women Social & Political Union (WSPU) procession to Hyde Park on 21st July 1908, Sybil decided to accompany her on the grounds "(a) she did not think an unmarried girl should walk unchaperoned through the gutter, (b) because she believed in votes for women". (10)
Women's Social and Political Union
Under the influence of her more radical daughter, Sybil became a supporter of the WSPU and fund-raising events for the organisation at Llanwern. On 1st March 1912, Emmeline Pankhurst, Christabel Marshall and Mabel Tuke were arrested for breaking windows in Downing Street. When she was arrested Pankhurst said: "I have only this fear that perhaps our self-retraint has prevented us from doing so much as necessary, we are prepared to take all the stepsthat are necessary and to face the consequences." (11)
In 1913, Sylvia Pankhurst, with the help of Keir Hardie, Norah Smyth, Julia Scurr, Mary Phillips, Millie Lansbury, Eveline Haverfield, Lilian Dove-Wilcox, Florence Haig, Maud Joachim, Nellie Cressall and George Lansbury established the East London Federation of Suffragettes (ELF). An organisation that combined socialism with a demand for women's suffrage it worked closely with the Independent Labour Party. It also began production of a weekly paper for working-class women called The Women's Dreadnought. (12) Sybil Thomas also joined and became the treasurer of the ELF. (13)
On 12th February, 1914, Sybil organised a petition attacking the Cat & Mouse Act as cruel, against the best traditions of British law and "subversive of constitutional liberties". (14) Twelve days later Sybil joined forces with Henry Nevinson, Henry Devenish Harben, Laurence Housman and Francis Meynell in going to see Prime Minister H. H. Asquith. According to the The Daily News: "Three of them were received by Mr Asquith's secretary on Tuesday night, and after leaving Downing Street they proceeding in increasing numbers to Parliament Square, and several began to address the crowd from the plinth of Richard C�ur de Lion. They were requested by the police to desist, but refused, and the defendants were thereupon arrested." (15)
Meynell was charged with assaulting a policeman, and the others with obstructing or resisting the police. A policeman gave evidence that he was holding Houseman when Maynell came up and struck the witness a very violent blow in the side with his clenched fist, saying, "Let my friend go, or I will give you some more." Meynell, who declared that the whole object in going to the square was to get arrested, were fined 40s, the magistrate observing that if a police officer struck a man, no excuse could be made for him, but every excuse was supposed to be allowed for an educated man who struck an officer. (16)
Sybil Thomas admitted having caused an obstruction. She justified her action by declaring that "there was no other way as a woman but to go and do this. I went quite deliberately and intended to be taken up, for I knew that was the only way in which my views could be heard." (17)
When asked if she wished to say anything Sybil Thomas desired to call her husband to give evidence as to her character. David Alfred Thomas "rose from the body of the court and walked towards the witness-box, but the magistrate stopped him, remarking that he took it a husband was bound to give evidence in his wife's favour." Thomas and the remaining defendants were bound over in £5 to keep the peace for six months. When she refused to be bound she was cheered by a crowd of women at the back of the court. (18)
First World War
During the First World War she gave over part of the house at Llanwern as a hospital. In 1916 her husband, David Alfred Thomas, was granted the title, Lord Rhondda, and appointed by David Lloyd George as president of the Local Government Board. He was transferred in June 1917 to be minister of food control. (19) Lady Rhondda, chaired the women's advisory committee of the National Savings Committee and she travelled extensively with her husband in carrying out his duties for the government. (20)
Margaret Haig Thomas worked closely with her father, who was sent to the United States to arrange the supply of munitions for the British armed forces. In May 1915, Margaret was returning from the United States with her father on the Lusitania when it was torpedoed by a German submarine. (21) She later recalled: "I unhooked my skirt so that it should come straight off and not impede me in the water. The list on the ship soon got worse again, and, indeed, became very bad. Presently the doctor said he thought we had better jump into the sea. I followed him, feeling frightened at the idea of jumping so far (it was, I believe, some sixty feet normally from "A" deck to the sea), and telling myself how ridiculous I was to have physical fear of the jump when we stood in such grave danger as we did. I think others must have had the same fear, for a little crowd stood hesitating on the brink and kept me back. And then, suddenly, I saw that the water had come over on to the deck. We were not, as I had thought, sixty feet above the sea; we were already under the sea. I saw the water green just about up to my knees. I do not remember its coming up further; that must all have happened in a second. The ship sank and I was sucked right down with her." (22)
Although over a thousand passengers died, Margaret and her father were rescued. As Deirdre Beddoe has pointed out: "The ordeal made Margaret determined to play her own part in the war effort. She was appointed as commissioner of Women's National Service in Wales, as controller of women's recruiting and, before the war ended, to the Women's Advisory Council of the Ministry of Reconstruction, which was concerned with issues on which she felt strongly. She was committed to the idea that women should remain an integral part of the post-war workforce, and to that end she set up the Women's Industrial League in 1918 to campaign for the rights of women workers. (23)
Later Years
David Alfred Thomas died of heart disease and rheumatic fever on 3rd July 1918. (24) The Daily Telegraph reported: "When history completes its record of the leaders who baffled Prussia's ambition for the mastery of the world a distinguished place will be given to Lord Rhondda." (25)
Viscountess Rhondda was appointed a dame commander in the Order of the British Empire in 1920 for her wartime services. (19) According to the Western Mail she was "A woman of strong but pleasing personality". (26)
Viscountess Rhondda became more conservative as she grew older. Margaret Haig Thomas wrote to Elizabeth Robins, that her mother was "inclined to regret what I think she regards as my Bolshevist tendencies, being herself what one might call a gentle and very inconsistent die-hard, but we do not allow our political differences to trouble us." (27)
Sybil Thomas, Viscountess Rhondda, died at her home, Llanwern Park, Newport, Monmouthshire, on 11th March 1941, and was buried at Llanwern on 14 March. (28)
Primary Sources
(1) Evening News (25th February 1914)
Six men and woman arrested in Parliament Square, after an attempt had been made to send a deputation to the Prime Minister on the subject of the Cat and Mouse Act, were charged today at Bow Street. Their names were Henry Nevinson (55), Henry Devenish Harben (39), Katherine Haig (39), Lawrence Houseman (55), Sybil Margaret Thomas (37) wife of Mr D. A. Thomas and Francis Meynell (22).
Meynell was charged with assaulting a policeman, and the others with obstructing or resisting the police.
A policeman gave evidence that he was holding Mr Houseman when Maynell came up and struck the witness a very violent blow in the side with his clenched fist, saying, "Let my friend go, or I will give you some more."
Meynell, who declared that the whole object in going to the square was to get arrested, were fined 40s, the magistrate observing that if a police officer struck a man, no excuse could be made for him, but every excuse was supposed to be allowed for an educated man who struck an officer…
Mrs Thomas admitted having caused an obstruction, and when asked if she wished to say anything she desired to call her husband to give evidence as to her character. (laughter)
Mr. D. A. Thomas, the Welsh coal magnate, rose from the body of the court and walked towards the witness-box, but the magistrate stopped him, remarking that he took it a husband was bound to give evidence in his wife's favour.
Mrs Thomas and the remaining defendants were bound over in £5 to keep the peace for six months.
(2) The Daily News (26th February 1914)
The six men and women suffragists who were arrested while trying to hold a meeting in Parliament Square on Tuesday night were brought Sir John Dickenson at Bow Street yesterday…
Mr Muskett, who prosecuted, said that apparently the defendants had formed themselves into an independent body for the repeal of the "Cat and Mouse Act". Three of them were received by Mr Asquith's secretary on Tuesday night (24 th February 1914), and after leaving Downing Street they proceeding in increasing numbers to Parliament Square, and several began to address the crowd from the plinth of Richard C�ur de Lion. They were requested by the police to desist, but refused, and the defendants were thereupon arrested…
Mr Nevinson, whose case was taken first, said that but for him official position he was sure that the magistrate would be standing by his side in the dock. The object of the demonstration was to protest against the Government's treatment of women political offenders. He had a long and varied career, and had tried to do the State some service, but he had never been prouder than he was that day standing in the dock…
Upon Mrs Thomas refusing to be bound she was cheered by a crowd of women at the back of the court.
Student Activities
References
(1) David Simkin, Family History Research (18th May, 2023)
(2) Angela V. John, Turning the Tide: The Life of Lady Rhondda (2013) page 28
(3) Margaret Haig Thomas, D. A. Thomas: Viscount Rhondda (1921) page 16
(4) Angela V. John, Turning the Tide: The Life of Lady Rhondda (2013) page 28
(5) Angela V. John, Turning the Tide: The Life of Lady Rhondda (2013) page 29
(6) John Williams, David Alfred Thomas : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (3rd January, 2008)
(7) Angela V. John, Turning the Tide: The Life of Lady Rhondda (2013) page 33
(8) Angela V. John, Turning the Tide: The Life of Lady Rhondda (2013) pages 34-36
(9) Deirdre Beddoe, Sybil Haig Thomas : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (23rd September, 2004)
(10) Margaret Haig Thomas, This Was My World (1933) page 118
(11) Votes for Women (29th March 1912)
(12) Sylvia Pankhurst, The History of the Women's Suffrage Movement (1931) pages 416-423
(13) Deirdre Beddoe, Sybil Haig Thomas : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (23rd September, 2004)
(14) Sybil Haig Thomas, petition sent to Prime Minister H. H. Asquith (12th February 1914)
(15) The Daily News (26th February 1914)
(16) The Evening News (25th February 1914)
(17) Angela V. John, Turning the Tide: The Life of Lady Rhondda (2013) page 116
(18) The Daily News (26th February 1914)
(19) John Williams, David Alfred Thomas : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (3rd January, 2008)
(20) Deirdre Beddoe, Sybil Haig Thomas : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (23rd September, 2004)
(21) Angela V. John, Turning the Tide: The Life of Lady Rhondda (2013) pages 121-129
(22) Margaret Haig Thomas, This Was My World (1933) pages 255-256
(23) Deirdre Beddoe, Margaret Haig Thomas : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (28th May 2015)
(24) John Williams, David Alfred Thomas : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (3rd January, 2008)
(25) The Daily Telegraph (4th July, 1918)
(26) Deirdre Beddoe, Sybil Haig Thomas : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (23rd September, 2004)
(27) Western Mail (12 March 1941)
(28) Margaret Haig Thomas, letter to Elizabeth Robins (18th April 1922)
(29) John Williams, David Alfred Thomas : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (3rd January, 2008)
