896 Arthur Arnold

Constituency  :  Salford  1880-85

Arthur  was  the  other  Liberal  victor  at  Salford.

Arthur  was  the  son  of  a  Sussex  magistrate  and  brother  of  the  poet  Edwin  Arnold. He  was  privately  educated  and  trained  to  be  a  surveyor  and  land  agent. He  was  an  Assistant  Commissioner  of  public  Works  during  the  Lancashire  cotton  famine  and  wrote  a  book "The  History  of  the  Cotton  Famine". He  also  wrote  two  lowbrow  novels. He  was  an  advanced  Radical  and  in  1868  became  the  first  editor  of  The  Echo , an  evening  paper. He  unsuccessfully  contested  the  Huntingdon  by-election  of  1873. In  1878  he  published  "Social Politics"  setting  out  his  views  on  disestablishment, land  law, railway  nationalisation, female  suffrage , Home  Rule   and  temperance.  He  was   president  of  the  Free  Land  League  and  a  member  of  the  London  Anti-Vivisection  Society.

Arthur  was  a  frequent  questioner  of  ministers  and  made  over  100  interventions  each  year  he  was  in  Parliament.

Arthur  was  defeated  at  Salford  North  in  1885  and  1886. In  1892  he  tried  for  Dorset  North  unsuccessfully.

When  London  County  Council  was  formed  in  1889  Arthur  was  elected   as   a  county  alderman. He  chaired  the  council  between  1895  and  1897.  He  was  knighted  in  1895,

He  died  unexpectedly  in  1902 aged  68.