My friend Gary Jones, who has died of pancreatic cancer aged 64, was a steelworker, socialist and local councillor. A perfect example of the Welsh working-class autodidact, Gary immersed himself in military history, read voraciously and, it seemed, always had pocketfuls of leftwing badges which he would hand out to anyone.
Gary and I first met at the Laugharne Weekend festival in the town on which Dylan Thomas modelled “Llaregggub” in Under Milk Wood. As there’s no green room, the punters and performers mingle all weekend, and consequently the same people come each year. That’s how we became friends, albeit just for a weekend a year, though you can fit a lifetime into an hour over a few pints in a Welsh pub.
Born in Gwent, Gary was the eldest of the three children of Yvonne Hawkins, a shop assistant, and Robert Jones, a steelworker. His father wanted to call him Yuri Gagarin Jones, but was persuaded by a sober-minded registrar to name him after Gary Cooper instead.
After Ebbw Vale grammar school, Gary joined his father in the local steelworks as a tinplater, remaining there until it closed in 2002, when he relocated with his family to Llangennech in Carmarthenshire to work at the Trostre steelworks until his retirement in 2019.
Aged 15, Gary joined the Young Socialists, becoming a full member of the Labour party three years later, and remained one for the rest of his life. In Llangennech he embraced village life, being elected to the local community council, serving for a year as chair. He also represented Llangennech and Bryn on Carmarthenshire unitary council. During the 2024 general election (undergoing chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer that had spread to his liver), Gary earned brief notoriety at a hustings when he made a Nazi salute to a far-right Ukip candidate, Stan Robinson, after Robinson had expressed admiration for General Franco. Asked to leave, Gary then apologised to the security staff.
Neither I nor any of Gary’s many friends were remotely surprised or shocked. He was a passionate analyst of leftwing history, his Twitter handle being “Poumista” after Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista (Poum), the anti-Stalinist socialist party George Orwell joined up with in the Spanish civil war.
We last met at this year’s festival. He gave me a badge. I gave him a book (I also portrayed him in several festival posters). He died seven weeks later, a prospect he spoke of with calm nobility.
Gary is survived by his wife, Cara (nee Evans), a trainer for Carmarthenshire school staff on computer systems and data protection, now retired, whom he married in 1985, their daughters, Molly and Rowen, his sister, Dawn, and his brother, David.
