Phil Williams (politician)

Williams was born in Tredegar[?] in the industrial valleys of south Wales and grew up in Bargoed[?], another industrial town. He was educated at the University of Cambridge, and became a space scientist. He was appointed Professor of Solar Terrestrial Physics at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth[?], and simultaneously became a well-known media figure (within Wales) as economic spokesman for Plaid Cymru. From 1999 to 2003, he was a member of the National Assembly for Wales[?] for the electoral region of South Wales East. Williams also stood for election in Blaenau Gwent in 1999 and got 21% of the vote. He quit to work on a research project to study the inner workings of the sun from the observatory near the North Pole. In 2001, he was voted Welsh Politician of the Year, and he was been pressurised by former colleagues to become the next president of his party, a largely honorific post, following the recent resignation of the outgoing president, Ieuan Wyn Jones[?].

He died from a heart attack while visiting a Cardiff massage parlour. Apart from the sad fact that he died, the fact of this visit also shocked the public and his wife, children and grandchildren, to whom he had said he was going to attend a university meeting. There were no suspicious circumstances and the results of the post mortem[?] examination made an inquest unnecessary.