829 Alfred Watkin

Constituency  : Great  Grimsby  1877-80

Alfred  took  Great  Grimsby  from  the  Tories  despite  a  challenge  from  an  independent  Liberal , Dr  Sayles.  Alfred  had  a  fleet  of  wagons  to  bring  voters  to  the  polls  and  his  opponents  claimed  some  of  his  supporters  did  not  live  in  the  borough. Despite  only  getting  97  votes  Sayles  was  able  to  raise  a  drunken mob  against  Alfred  who  was  besieged  in  the  Royal  Hotel. He  was  eventually  rescued  by  the  Army  but  the  hotel  was  trashed.

Alfred  was  the  son  of  Edwin  Watkin  the  MP  for  Hythe. He  was  an  engineer  and  the  author  of  several  treatises  on  railway  engineering. He  was  the  son-in-law  of  the  Dean  of  Canterbury. He  was  a  director  of  the  Manchester, Sheffield  and  Lincolnshire  Railway  Company.

In  1901  Alfred  succeeded  to  his  father's  baronetcy.

He  died  in  1914  aged  68.