883 Hugh Mason

Constituency : Ashton-under-Lyne  1880-85

Hugh  recaptured  Ashton-under-Lyne  for  the  Liberals.

Hugh  was  a  textiles  manager's  son  from  Stalybridge. He  was  working  in  a  mill  from  10 and  being  educated  at  a  private  school. He  worked  at  a  bank  before  entering  the  family  business.  He  built  two  mills  in  the  Ryecroft  area  and  a  "worker's  colony"  of  better  housing  for  his  employees.  He  discouraged  drinking. He  helped  set  up  the  Manchester  Cotton  Company  during  the  Lancashire  Cotton  Famine. He  was  President  of  the  Manchester  Chamber  of  Commerce  from  1871  to  1874 and  had  interests  in  the  Bridgewater  Canal  Navigation  Society, the  Midland  Railway , Mersey  Dock  Board  and  iron  and  coal  companies. He  was  mayor  of  Ashton  between  1857  and  1860.  In  1867  he  was  one  of  the  founders  of  Manchester  Reform  Club. He  was  not  always  in  agreement  with  other  Liberals  and  founded  his  own  newspaper,  the  Ashton-under-Lyne  News  to  get  his  views  across.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Executive  Committee  for  the  Prosecution  of  General  Eyre  in  Jamaica . In  1874, fed  up  with  infighting  he  retired  from  the  local  council  but  by  1878  he  had  reconciled  with  the  party  who  wanted  him  to  stand  for  Parliament.

Hugh  seconded  the  Queen's  Speech  in  1880.  He  spoke  in  favour  of  local  option  that  same  year  when  the  Local  Option  Bill  got  passed. He  also  opposed  smoking. .Hugh  agreed  to  become  a  spokesman  for  the  Women's  Suffrage  Association  in  1881  and  he  put  forward  two  motions  which  were  defeated. From   1883  onwards  he  was  in  poor  health.

Unable  to  fight  an  energetic  campaign  in  1885  Hugh  was  defeated  by  48  votes.

The  Manchester  Guardian  described  Hugh  as  "unpopular : the  ruggedness  which  mars  his  virtues  and  the  self  assertion which  stamps  his  conduct , do  not  invite  the  affection  of  his  fellow.Although  he  has  done  more  than any  other  millowner  on  securing  the  physical  and  social  well-being  of  his  employees, he  is  not  highly  esteemed. He  has  built  for  his  workpeople  admirable  cottages,  swimming  baths, gymnasiums  and  lecture  halls, but  beneficient  acts  do  not  suffice  to  secure  popularity unless  there  is  a  suavity  of  manner  and  sympathy  of  nature  in  the  benefactor  and  these  are  qualities  which  Mr  Mason  lacks".

Hugh  was  a  Congregationalist.

Hugh  died  in  1886  aged  69.