939 Joseph Firth

Constituency : Chelsea  1880-85, Dundee  1888-9

Joseph  took  the  second  seat  at  Chelsea  alongside  Charles  Dilke.

Joseph  was  a  Quaker  from  Todmorden. His  family  had  been  major  landowners  in  Yorkshire  for  centuries. He  was  educated  at  Ackworth  School  and  the  University  of  London. He  became  a  barrister. He  became  involved  in  local  government  in  London  in  the  1870s  and  sat  on  the  London  School  Board. He  published  a  book  outlining  his  ideas  for  reform, Municipal  London.  He  was  also  a  keen  cyclist  and  wrote  a  book  in  1869  "The  Velocipede- Its  Past, Its  Present &  It's  Future  which  had  the  great  subtitle  "Straddle  a  Saddle  then  Paddle  and  Skedaddle".

Joseph  was  President  of  the  Municipal  Reform  League  from  1880  to  1882 . Most  of  his  parliamentary  interventions  were  about  London's government.  He  claimed  that  "with  a  great  measure  of  London  reform  behind  them, the  Liberal  party  might  for  a  generation  face  without  apprehension  electoral  issues  in  the  metropolis".  He  attacked  the  guild  system and  sat  on  a  royal  commission  under  the  Earl  of  Derby  but  its  findings  backed  the  livery  companies'  operations.

In  1882  he  moved  the  address at  the  Opening  of  parliament  but  his  local  paper  reported  that no  one  could  have  "looked  more  miserable  or  guilty  than  did  Mr  Firth  when,  on   Tuesday  night, he  slunk up  the  floor  of  the  house  in  Court  dress. The  knowledge  that  his  trousers  did  not  descend  below  his  knees  was  as  plainly  stamped  upon  his  blushing  brow  as  it  had  been  engraved  by  a  ticket-writer; and  nothing  could  have  been  more  pathetic  than  the  manner  in  which, having  reached  his  place,  and  finding  himself  seated  directly  under  the  Ladies  Gallery,he  opened  his  copy  of  the  Orders  to  their  widest  limits  and  spread  them  over  his  knee".

In  1885  Joseph  left  Chelea  to  Dilke  and  unsuccessfully  contested  North  Kensington. In  1886  he  was  defeated  at  Newington  West. In  1888  he  got  back  in  at  a  by-election  in  Dundee.

Despite  sitting  for  a  Scottish  seat  Joseph  was  elected  a  Progressive  ( a  term  used  to  blur  Liberal  and  Labour  distinctions  in  London ) councillor  for  London  County  Council  in  1889. He  was  the  first  deputy  chairman  of  the  council.

However  he  didn't  have  time  to  make  an  impact  for  he  died  of  heatstroke in  Switzerland   where  he  had  gone  for  rest  and  recuperation  that  September.  He  was  47.