796 Alexander McArthur

Constituency : Leicester  1874-92

Alexander  took  over  from  John  Harris  at  Leicester.

Alexander  was  the  son  of  a  Wesleyan  minister  in  Ireland. He  started  out  as  a  merchant's  apprentice  and  then  emigrated  to  Australia  in  1842. He  was  involved  in  the  manufacture  of  soft  goods  and  the  shipping  of  gold.  He  had  warehouses  in  all  the  big  Australian  cities, was  a  member  of  the  Sydney  Chamber  of  Commerce  and  was  involved  in  banking, insurance  and  mining. In  1859  he  was  elected  to  the  New  South  Wales  Legislative  Assembly. In  1861  he  was  appointed  to  the  NSW  Legislative  Council   but  deemed  to  have  resigned  his  seat  in  1865  after  returning  to  London  in  1863  to  take  over  the  office  there. He  was  the  brother  of  the  MP  for  Lambeth, William  McArthur.

Alexander  was  an  "advanced"  Liberal  who  supported  the  equalisation  of  the  county  and  borough  franchises, land  reform  and  temperance.  In  Parliament  he  supported  the  annexation  of  Fiji , Sabbath  observance  ( opposing  his  colleague  Peter  Taylor's  motion  to  open  museums  and  libraries  on  a  Sunday )  and  Home  Rule.

He  stepped  down  in  1892.

He  died  in  1909  aged  95. His  son  William  became  an  MP.