Constituency : The Hartlepools 1891-5, 1900-1910
Christopher recaptured Hartlepool for the main party after the death of the Liberal Unionist Thomas Richardson.
Christopher was a grocer's son who started as a buyer then a partner in his brother's wholesale provision firm. He made a fortune by finding a way to evade the French blockade in the Franco-Prussian War. Christopher took the initiative in the firm buying its own ships and in 1882 started a separate company to handle the shipping side. He then managed a series of mergers which eventually made him the biggest employer in the town.
Christopher's Commons contributions were largely on marine matters.
Christopher had a very narrow victory over the Liberal Unionists in 1892 then an equally narrow defeat in 1895 but he was returned with a large majority in 1900.
Christopher was knighted in 1895.
In 1908 Christopher proposed his ideas on industrial peace to a conference of trade union representatives in Hartlepool. That same year he pressed McKenna for more government contracts to be placed with the shipyards against the clamour for retrenchment.
Christopher's election in January 1910 was voided on petition and he relinquished the seat to his nephew Stephen. He was raised to the peerage as Baron Furness. His only speech to the Lords in 1912 expressed concern about the damage the industrial unrest was doing to UK trade.
He died in 1912 aged 60.
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