560 John Candlish

Constituency : Sunderland  1866-74

John  had  stood  in  the  1865  election  for  Sunderland  but  a  Tory  claimed  the  second  seat. He  won the  seat  at  the  by-election  when  the  Liberal  victor  Henry  Fenwick  became  Civil  Lord  of  the Admiralty.

John  was  a  Presbyterian  farmer's  son  from  Northumberland. He  received  a  rudimentary  education  before  going   to  work  in  a  bottle  works. He  moved  to  an  apprenticeship  as  a  draper. He  also  became  a  Baptist. He  became  involved  in  a variety  of  business  ventures  including  founding  the  Sunderland  News  in  1851 before  acquiring  a  lease  on  a  bottle  works  near  Seaham  Harbour.  He  was  a  beneficient  employer  and  local  philanthropist. With the  help  of  the  Marquess  of  Londonderry  it  became  the  largest  in  Europe. John  was  mayor  of Sunderland  in  1858  and  1861  and  held  various  offices  in  the  town.

In  1866  John  spoke  in  favour  of  the  the  Reform  Bill.  He  was  a  strong  critic  of  the  Abyssinian Expedition  of  1868   which  led  to  him  chairing  two  select  committees  on  the  subject  in  1868  and 1870.  He  was  also  strongly  against  compulsory  vaccination  and  in  1870  introduced  a  Bill  to  draw  some of  the  teeth  from  the  Vaccination  Act  of  1867.  He  then  became  a  member  of   the  select  committee  that  was  set  up  to  examine  the  operation  of  the  act  in  1871. He  was  not  radical  enough  for  some  of  Sunderland's  Liberals  and  he  had  to  have  a  vote  of confidence  at  a  meeting  in  1971.

In  1870  John  visited  India  on  parliamentary  business  and  it  seemed  to  have  an  adverse  effect  on his  health. He  stood  down  at  the  1874 election  and  died  just  a  month  later  in  Cannes.  He  was  58.