982 Samuel Storey

Constituency : Sunderland  1881-95 , 1910  ( Independent  Tariff  Reform )

Samuel  came  in  for  Sunderland  unopposed  after  the  resignation  of  Henry  Havelock-Allen. Some  of  the  local  Liberals  were  unhappy  about  his  radical  opinions  including  Home  Rule  for  Ireland  and  tried  to  prevent  his  candidature.

Samuel  was  a  farmer's  son  from  Durham. He  was  educated  in Newcastle  then  trained  as  a  teacher. He  worked  as  a  teacher  at  a  Church  of  England  school  from  1860  to  1864  when  he  got  married. He  then  worked  as  a  travelling  salesman  for  three  years  then  set  up  in  business  as   an  accountant. In  1870  he  succeeded  his  father  as  Actuary  of  the  Monkwearmouth  Savings  Bank. He  expanded  his  business  interests  to  become  a  partner  in  a  timber  firm  and  dabble  in  land  speculation. In  1865  he  supported  Henry  Fenwick  in  Sunderland  but  then  turned  against  him  and  encouraged  John  Candlish's  ousting  of  him. He  became  a  town  councillor  in  1869  and  an  alderman  from  1877  to  1890. He  was  mayor of  Sunderland  in  1876, 1877  and  1890. In  1873  he  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Sunderland  Echo, the  town's  first  daily  paper, in  order  to  further  the  radical  cause.

In  1882  Samuel  formed  a partnership  with  Andrew  Carnegie  which  came  to  own  a  chain  of  papers   including  titles  in  Wolverhampton, London  and  Portsmouth.

In  1891  a  charge  of  perjury  , brought  against  Samuel  for  remarks  about  evictions  of  striking  miners  at  the  Silksworth  Colliery  on  the  orders  of  the   Marquess  of  Londonderry,  was  dismissed.  Samuel  spoke  up  for the  miners  in  the  Commons.

From  1892  until  1913  he  served  on  Durham  County  Council  becoming  chairman  iin  1894-7  and  again  in  1898-1905.

In  1895  Samuel  was  defeated.  He  stood  unsuccessfully  for  Newcastle  in  1900. He  was  involved  in  the  Barnard  Castle  by-election  campaign  in  1903  and  warned  the  party  about  the  threat  posed  by  the  Labour  Representation  Committee.

Samuel  was  convinced  by  Chamberlain's  arguments  for  Tariff  Reform  and  resigned  as  chairman  of  the  Northern  Liberal  Association. The  Sunderland  Liberal  Association  rejected  the  idea  in  1904   so  the  following  year  he  set  up  the  Northern  Tariff  Reform  Association.

Samuel   regained  Sunderland  as  an  Independent  Tariff  Reform  candidate  in  January  1910. He  stood  down  in  December.  He  bought  the  Newcastle  Daily  Journal  to  promote  the cause.

In  1915  Samuel  became  honorary  commander  of  the  Sunderland  branch  of  the  Volunteer  Training  Corps.

He  died  in  1925  aged  84. His  grandson  Samuel  later  became  a  Conservative  MP.