1271 Thomas Snape

Constituency : Heywood  1892-5

Thomas  took  over  from  Isaac  Hoyle  at  Heywood.

Thomas  was  born  in  Salford  and  started  working  at  a  chemical  firm. Eventually  he  set  up  his  own  works  which  by  1890  had  become  part  of  the  United  Alkali  Company.  He  was  a  Methodist.

Thomas  advocated  temperance  and  was  a  pacifist. He  supported  the  development  of  railways  in  British  East  Africa  to  help  the  Lancashire  cotton  trade  find  new  markets.

Thomas  was  defeated  by  a  Liberal  Unionist  in  1895.

Thomas  was  president  of  the  Liverpool  Peace  Society  but  he  did  not  oppose  the  Boer  War; indeed  he  said  "there  was  no  alternative  but  to  drive  the  Boers  back  to  their  own  land". he  accepted  the  nomination  to  contest  Bodmin  against  Leonard  Courtney  who  had  been  repudiated  by  the  Unionists  for  his  opposition  to  the  war.  The  Herald  of  Peace   referred  to  this  as  an  "unexpected  secession  to  the  war  party ".  In  the  event  Courtney  stood  down  and  Thomas  was  seen  off  by  the  Liberal  Unionists.

In  subsequent  years  Thomas  was   a  county  councillor.

He  died  in  1912  aged  77.