819 Thomas Blake

Constituency  : Leominster  1876-80,  Forest  of  Dean  1885-87

Thomas  won  the  hitherto  Tory  stronghold  of  Leominster  in  January  1876.

Thomas  was  from  Ross,  the  chairman  of  the  School  Board  there. He  began  life  as  a  post  office  clerk  and  worked  his  way  up  to  a  fortune. He  was  a  Baptist. He  stood  for  Herefordshire  in  1868.   In  1873  he  gave  a  free  library  to  Ross.

In  1880  Thomas  moved  that  the  immunity  from  arrest  enjoyed   by  peers  and  MPs  should  be  abolished.

Thomas  was  defeated  in  1880.

Thomas  resigned  his  seat  in  1887.

He died  in  1901  aged  75.