Harold Finch

Sir Harold Josiah Finch (2 May 1898 – 16 July 1979) was a Welsh  Labour Party politician born in Barry, Glamorgan. He was a miners' agent in Blackwood after the First World War and was a contemporary of Aneurin Bevan, who he accompanied as a miners' delegate to the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool in 1925. Like many of his colleagues, including Bevan, Jim Griffiths and Morgan Phillips, Finch was a former student of the Central Labour College in London. He was elected as Member of Parliament for Bedwellty at the 1950 general election and was Under-secretary of State at the Welsh Office from 1964 to 1966 during Harold Wilson's first administration.

Finch held the seat until he retired from the House of Commons at the 1970 general election. His successor was Neil Kinnock, who later became a leader of the Labour Party.

In 1972 Finch had his memoirs published. He was knighted in the 1976 Birthday Honours for his services to British politics and the trade union movement. He was the first 'Freeman' of Islwyn Borough Council and the Sir Harold Finch Memorial Park was created in 1982 at Pontllanfraith.

He died on 16 July 1979 in Newport, aged 81.