1580 Gordon Harvey

Constituency  : Rochdale  1906-18

Gordon  recaptured Rochdale  from  the  Tories. He's  an  MP  with  whom  I  have  a  few  personal  connections.

Gordon's  father  was  a  co-founder  of  the  textile  firm  Fothergill  and  Harvey  whose  mills  were  all  situated  in  Littleborough. He  became  a  Lancashire  county  councillor  an  was  chairman  of  its  Education  Committee  from  1902  until  his  death.. He  stood  for  Rochdale  in  1900. Despite  Gordon  being  very  opposed  to  the  Boer War  and  the  intervention  of  a  Labour  candidate , he  came  within  19  votes  of  unseating  the Tory.

Gordon  was  a  firm  pacifist  and  routinely  opposed  the  naval  estimates  in  Parliament.  He  moved  an  amendment  against  McKenna's  estimates  in  1909  but  collapsed  when  Asquith  told  the  House  that  Germany  could  now  match  the  pace  of  British  shipbuilding. Nevertheless  he told  the  Commons, "We  are  approaching  within  measurable  distance  of  the  time  when  armed  peace  will  be  as  costly  to  maintain  as  a  state  of  war". He  was  on  the  executive  of  the  Anglo-German  Friendship  Society.

 Gordon   was  president  of  the  Land  Nationalisation  Society  and  the  National  Peace  Council . He  supported  the  overturning  of  the  Taff  Vale  judgement. In  1913  he  introduced  a  Smoke  Abatement  Bill.

The  First  World  War  was  a  difficult  time  for  Gordon. He  was  strongly  opposed  to  the  war  on  principle  but  his  firm  was  making  large  profits  as  a  wartime  supplier of  khaki.. He  became  disillusioned  with  the  Liberal  leadership  and  wrote  to  Arthur  Ponsonby  of  the  "toppling  over  of  idols".  He supported  the  League  of  Nations .He  was  forced  to  stand  down  in  1918  by  throat  cancer  but  would  undoubtedly have  suffered  a  crushing  defeat  if  he  had  put  himself  forward  again.

Gordon  was  a  philanthropic employer  who  built  good  homes  for  his  workers  and  was  also  an  early  environmentalist, taking  a  lead  in  reducing  smoke  emissions  and  planting  trees. He  sponsored  the  Beautiful  Littleborough  Society, the  forerunner  of  Littleborough  Civic  Trust.

Gordon  lingered  in  his  home  on  the  shores  of  Windermere  until  1922  when  he  died  aged  63. His  nephews,  Alexander  and  Charles  inherited  the  firm  and  gave  my  mother  her  first  job .  At  the  same  time  they  employed  a  young  man  named  Cyril  Smith  and  later  sponsored  him  to  become  a  Liberal  agent. Charles  stood  for  Rochdale  in  1945  but  came  a  distant  third.