38 Facts About Clifford Cory

Sir Clifford John Cory, 1st Baronet was a Welsh colliery owner, coal exporter and Liberal Party politician.

Clifford John Cory was the son of John Cory, a South Wales coal broker and philanthropist.

Clifford Cory was educated privately in Wales and on the continent.

In 1886, Clifford Cory was appointed lieutenant in the 3rd Battalion, the Welsh Regiment but his principal career was the coal trade following the example of his father and his uncle Richard Clifford Cory.

Clifford Cory was President of Cardiff Incorporated Chamber of Commerce, in 1907 and 1908 and sometime Chairman of the South Wales and Monmouthshire Schools of Mines.

Clifford Cory was a typical example of the Welsh-born, nonconformist, capital owning, elite Liberal, although this background was becoming less and less relevant in politics with the rise of class as the principal determinant of political allegiance.

Clifford Cory was something of an exception however.

Clifford Cory was elected to Glamorgan County Council in 1892 as member for Ystrad.

Clifford Cory ousted the sitting member, David Thomas, the only working man who served on the previous council.

Clifford Cory retained the seat until 1910, the only substantial coal owner to keep a prominent political profile in the Rhondda during this period.

Clifford Cory served as a justice of the peace for Glamorgan and Monmouthshire and was a deputy lieutenant of the County of Glamorgan.

Clifford Cory was created a baronet in 1907, the Cory baronetcy of Llantarnam Abbey.

Clifford Cory bought the abbey from Reginald Blewitt who had restored it in 1836.

Clifford Cory was adopted as parliamentary candidate for the Tory seat of South Monmouthshire in 1893 which he unsuccessfully contested at the 1895 general election.

Clifford Cory was then adopted for Tonbridge in Kent for the general election of 1900 but despite fighting a campaign on religious and temperance issues which attracted the support of at least one Conservative minister of religion in the division, he was again unsuccessful.

Clifford Cory gained St Ives from the Liberal Unionists at the Liberal landslide victory of 1906.

Clifford Cory held the seat as a Liberal in the elections of January and December 1910.

In 1918 Clifford Cory stood and won in support of the Coalition government of David Lloyd George.

At the 1922 general election Clifford Cory stood as a National Liberal as a supporter of Lloyd George.

Labour did not stand a candidate but this did not help Clifford Cory, who lost to the Unionist candidate Anthony Hawke, the Recorder of Plymouth.

Clifford Cory won the seat back from Hawke in 1923 but lost again in 1924.

Clifford Cory was noted for his interest in temperance and low church evangelism.

Clifford Cory was a particular friend of Capel Zion at Ponthir in Monmouthshire.

Clifford Cory was a vice-president of the council of the Christian Service Union, an organisation with the aim of providing work and training for unemployed and vagrant boys and youths.

In 1898, Clifford Cory was the head of the Welsh Protestant League, which had a reputation for being rabidly anti-Catholic.

Clifford Cory voted against the government in 1911 supporting an amendment which would have excluded any Home Rule Bill from the operation of the Parliament Bill.

Clifford Cory voted against the Bill again on second reading repeated his rebellion on the third reading of the Bill on 7 July 1913.

On 14 May 1914, Clifford Cory presided at an anti-Home Rule meeting at Caxton Hall, Westminster.

Clifford Cory said he was in a unique position in that he was the only Liberal member returned as a declared opponent of Home Rule.

The Unionist newspaper, Western Morning News attributed Unionist gains in Devon and Cornwall in December 1910 to the issue of Home Rule, as did the Liberal Westminster Gazette yet at this election Clifford Cory marginally increased his majority and share of the vote, benefiting from anti-home rule feeling.

Clifford Cory was a founder member of the British Federation of Health and Holiday Resorts, an organisation to bring together all health spa and holiday towns to promote their business, campaign for mutually supportive legislation and extend the current summer holiday season.

In later life Clifford Cory took an interest in animal welfare issues.

Clifford Cory's name is frequently mentioned in the sporting news of The Times newspaper for polo and in February 1909 he played for an England team against the French at the Cannes Season.

Clifford Cory appeared for the House of Commons team in various tournaments and for the famous Hurlingham Club, the headquarters of British polo.

Clifford Cory was a regular contributor to numerous charitable causes.

Clifford Cory was born in Hamilton, Ontario on 25 July 1865.

Clifford Cory was an amateur pianist and embroiderer in London, England.

Clifford Cory died at his home Llantarnam Abbey aged 81 on 3 February 1941, aged 81.