698 Henry Samuelson

Constituency : Cheltenham  1868-74, Frome  1876-85

Henry  regained  Cheltenham  for  the  Liberals  with  a  campaign  centred  on  universal  education. He  apologised  to  the  Jewish  community  for  what  was  perceived  as  an  anti-semitic  slur  in  one  of  his  remarks.

Henry  was  the  son  of  Bernhard  Samuelson, the  industrialist  MP  for  Banbury. He  was  educated  at  Rugby  and  Oxford.

Henry  had  an  uncomfortable  maiden  speech  on  the  Commons  Ladies  Gallery  screen  when  he  failed  to  see  the  humour  in  what  he  was  saying.Henry  presided  at  a  women's  suffrage  meeting  in  Bristol  in  1872.

Henry  was  defeated  in  1874  but  returned  for  Frome  in  a  by-election  in  1876. The  campaign  was  dominated  by  the  Eastern  Question, the  Tories  hoping  to  hold  their  seat  on  their pro-Turkish  policy. When  Henry  won  by  93  votes  he  described  his  victory  as  a  "warning  note"  telling  Disraeli  "that  the  English  people  were  not  in  favour  of  an  unnecessary  war ".

In  1883  Henry  visited  the  US  and  told  the  Chicago  Tribune  that  some  form  of  Home  Rule  must  be  conceded  to  Ireland.

Henry  stood  down  in  1885  due  to  ill-health  and  retired  to  France. Henry  succeeded  to  his  father's  baronetcy  in  1905.

He  died  in  1937  aged  91.