Walter FitzUryan Rice, 7th Baron Dynevor was a British military officer, civil servant and Conservative politician.
Background
He was the only son and heir of the 6th Baron Dynevor. On 12 October 1898, he married Lady Margaret Child Villiers (8 October 1875 – 1 April 1959), daughter of Victor Child Villiers, 7th Earl of Jersey and Margaret Elizabeth (née Leigh), Countess of Jersey, Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
Education
He was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford.
Career
On graduating from Oxford, he served in the Carmarthen Artillery for twelve years, rising to the rank of Captain. The 7th Baron had the following children: Charles Arthur Uryan Rhys, 8th Baron Dynevor (1899–1962) Honorary Imogen Alice Rhys (27 August 1903 –March 2001), married David Brand, 5th Viscount Hampden.
Captain Honorary
David Reginald Rhys (18 March 1907 –1991), married Lady Anne Maude Wellesley From 1899 to 1903, the Honorary Walter Rice was assistant private secretary to Lord Hamilton, Secretary of State for India. From 1903 to 1905, he was assistant secretary to the First Lord of the Admiralty, Lord Selborne.
After the Conservative government resigned in 1905, Rice travelled extensively in the Middle East and the Orient.
In January 1910, he was elected Member of Parliament for Brighton, being re-elected in December. His majority of 4,000 was, he was to comment later, unusually high in a period when average electorates were not large.
In 1911, the Honorary Walter Rice became 7th Baron Dynevor on the death of his father.
Thereafter, he became increasingly involved with the politics of his native Carmarthenshire. Vice-president of the Carmarthenshire Conservatives in 1912, he was also President of the West Wales Conservatives to 1914, when Conservative re-organisation saw him become President of the South Wales Conservatives, a post he held until 1938.
During the Great War, Lord Dynevor served in the Ministry of Munitions from 1916. Thereafter, he served on the Unionist Devolution Committee, considering the recommendations of the Speaker"s Conference on Devolution.
In 1919, he was elected to the Carmarthenshire County Council for Llandeilo, capturing a traditionally Liberal seat as an independent.
He retained this seat until increasing deafness forced him to resign in 1935. Throughout the inter-war years, Lord Dynevor was a key figure in Welsh Conservative politics, as well as the Carmarthenshire territorials. In 1928, Lord Dynevor became Lord Lieutenant of Carmarthenshire.
Forced to resign from his offices in 1938 due to increasing deafness, Lord Dynevor was praised for his record of public service.
Walter Street, in Ammanford, Carmarthenshire is named for the 7th Baron. In 1916 displaying Welshness had become sufficiently fashionable for Lord Dynevor to adopt (by royal licence) the older, Welsh form of his surname, "Rhys".
In 1906 Rice Street in Betws had been named after him. Lord Dynevor died on 8 June 1956, aged 82.
Charles Arthur FitzUryan Rhys as 8th Baron.
Membership
29th United Kingdom Parliament. 30th United Kingdom Parliament.