Constituency : Frome 1892-5 , 1896-1918
John took Frome from the Tories.
John was educated at Grove House School, Tottenham. He was a senior partner in the family merchant firms dealing in tea, coffee, rubber and such. He had property in both Devon and Cheshire.He was a Quaker.
John was defeated in 1895 but got an early chance to regain the seat in 1896 when the Tory was elevated to the peerage and took it
John was a close friend of Campbell-Bannerman and in 1907 was created a baronet. He had a close interest in labour matters.
In 1909 John asked Haldane about rumours of 66,000 trained German soldiers in England and rifles in a cellar near Charing Cross. Haldane sarcastically thanked him for "this illustration of a class of alarmist statements to which credence is too often given by thoughtless persons. To anyone possessing even an elementary knowledge of what mobilisation requirements mean , the suggestion is a ludicrous one".
John was widely criticised locally for voting against the Military Service Act according to his Quaker conscience. His son was severely wounded in the War but he declined to play on that when under attack in the election campaign. John's defeat in 1918 was shattering as he came third behind a Coalition Unionist and Labour ( who weren't far off the winning post ) with just 8 % of the vote. It's often used as an example of the Liberals' decline. They did not contest Frome again until 1929.
John stayed involved in local government in Cheshire.
He died in 1932 aged 75. His wife Anna contested two constituencies in the 1920s and his son John became a National Liberal and then Conservative MP.
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