579 Henry Winterbotham

Constituency : Stroud 1867-73

Henry  retained  Stroud  for  the  Liberals  after  the  resignation  of  George  Scrope. He  won  despite  his  opponent  describing  himself  as  a  Constitutionalist , hoping  to  peel  off  some  Whig  support.

Henry  was  the  son  of  a  banker  from  Stroud. He  was  educated  at  Amersham  and  University College  London. He  became  a  barrister.

Henry  was  a  Nonconformist  Radical.  In  1870  ,along  with  Charles  Dilke, he  assigned  himself  to  the Prussian  ambulance  corps. During  the  debate  around  the  Education  Act  in  1870  he  pressed  for compulsory  non-denominational  education. He  said  during  one  debate  "we  will  never  be  a  party  to handing  over  the  education  of  the  people  to  the  Catholic  or  any  other  clergy". In  1871  Gladstone appointed  him  under  secretary  for  the  Home Department  and  he  was  thought  to  be  a  rising  star. That  same  year  he  argued  against  the  traditional  Nonconformist  tactic  of  extracting  pledges  from  politicians  saying  they  should  trust  him  as  an  honest  man  "to  follow  the  dictates  of  my  conscience  freely".

He  died  in  Rome  in  1873  aded  36,  reportedly  from  overwork  on  top  of   habitual  poor health.