Constituency : Great Yarmouth 1857, Stockport 1864-8, Hythe 1874-95 ( 1886-92 as Liberal Unionist )
Edward came in at Stockport following the death of James Kershaw.
Edward was the son of a cotton merchant active in the Anti-Corn Law League. He started out working in his father's business but in 1845 started to branch out. He founded the Manchester Examiner but more significantly took on the secretaryship of the Trent Valley Railway. He moved on to the LNWR and visited the USA and Canada studying their railways. In 1953 he became general manager of the Manchester Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway and eventually became its chairman. He went on to become a director of many other railway companies at home and abroad. In 1857 he became MP for Great Yarmouth but the result was voided on petition.
Edward was a philanthropist who supported a Saturday half day holiday , public wash-houses and public parks. He supported the extension of the franchise and female suffrage.
In 1868 Edward was defeated at Stockport. The constituency had been enlarged by the Second Reform Act and now included staunchly Tory areas. He unsuccessfully fought the East Cheshire by-election in 1869 and Exeter in 1873.
Edward was also involved in the affairs of Great Grimsby where the LNWR largely controlled the seat. His son Alfred was elected MP there in 1877.
Edward was elected for Hythe in 1874 confusingly describing himself as a "Conservative Radical" which was apparently enough to placate the Conservative voters. His obituary in the Blackburn Telegraph said "there was more of the old Whig than the new Radical in his political leanings". He was never a great party man although friendly with Gladstone
In 1875 Edward founded the Channel Tunnel Company In 1880 Edward started work on his Channel Tunnel scheme with digging at Shakespeare Cliff between Folkestone and Dover. This caused great alarm at the War Office as possibly facilitating a French invasion. A panicked mob stoned the window of Edward's London house. Edward lobbied hard and wined and dined Prince Edward, Gladstone and the Archbishop of Canterbury in the tunnel but it was to no avail as Parliament blocked the project on the grounds of national security.
Perhaps in response to this he stood as an independent Liberal in 1885. In 1886 he switched to the Liberal Unionists. He thought the idea of casting off Ireland into poverty was inherently wrong and her economy could be improved by a Stranraer - Larne tunnel and English investment in her infrastructure. By 1892 he had returned to the main party.
Edwin set out to create a public amusement park at Wembley with a tower to rival the Eiffel Tower as its centrepiece. The park was opened in 1894 but the tower ran into difficulties and only the base had been completed when he died; this was demolished six years later.
He died in 1901 aged 81.
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