Constituency : Spalding 1887-95, Greenock 1906-10
Halley recorded the second Liberal by-election gain of the Parliament when he took Spalding from the Tories when his predecessor became Earl of Winchelsea. His opponent was an admiral with little knowledge of agricultural matters which told against him in the campaign. Halley campaigned for allotments and a fortnight after his victory the Tories introduced their own Allotments Bill.
Halley was the son of a Congregationalist minister. He was educated at his father's schools. From 1868 onwards he was an unordained pastor. He started work as a bank clerk then in 1870 set up a business venture crushing and refining oil seed. He also edited the newspaper Hastings and St Leonards Times from 1877 to 1883. In the 1880s he became involved in politics as an election agent and spoke in support of his friend William Ingram at Boston. He was informally adopted as the second candidate for Boston until it was reduced to one member. He stood unsuccessfully for Spalding in 1885 and 1886.
Halley was an advanced Liberal . He supported female suffrage , land reform, abolition of hereditary peers and secular education ( he was a former president of the Liberation Society ). He was an enthusiastic Home Ruler and did a lecture tour of Ireland.
In 1900 Halley was adopted as Liberal candidate for Peterborough but was unsuccessful. He returned for Greenock in 1906 but stood down at the January 1910 election. He was on Asquith's list of potential peers for the House of Lords.
Halley devoted the rest of his long life to philanthropy. In 1924 he founded the Halley Stewart Trust for Research towards the Christian Ideal in all Social Life though it largely ended up financing scientific and medical research. It sponsored the work of Victor Appleton whose work pioneered radar. It is still going and supports scientific research in the UK and Africa.
He died in 1937 of flu and bronchitis aged 99.
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