1066 Henry Roscoe

Constituency  : Manchester  South  1885-95

Henry  took  the  new  seat  of  Manchester  South. He  was  the  only  successful  Liberal  candidate  in  Manchester  as  his  constituency  lacked  a  large  Irish  vote  to  follow  Parnell's  call  to  vote  for  the  Conservatives.

Henry  was  a  London  barrister's  son . He  was  the  grandson  of  the  Radical  MP  for  Liverpool  William  Roscoe  and  son-in-law  of  Edmund  Potter  former  MP  for  Carlisle. He  was  educated  at  Liverpool  Institute  for  Boys  and  University  College  London. He  went  to  Heidelberg  to  work  under  Robert  Bunsen  where  they  worked  on  comparative  photochemistry  and  may  have  taken  the  first  flashlit  photograph.. In  1857  he  became  chair  of  chemistry  at  Owens  College  Manchester   and  stayed  there  until  his  election. In  1867  he  did  some  pioneering  research  on  vanadium. Henry  wrote  a  number  of  academic  works  on  chemistry  and  textbooks.In  1875  he  oversaw  the  construction  of  the  first  practical  chemistry  laboratory  in  any  British  university.
He  was  a  Unitarian.

Henry  was  thought  of  as  an  "advanced"  Liberal. He  worked  to  bring  radical  issues  within  the  party  programme. He  supported  the  idea  of  more  working  class  MPs  and  a  more  meritocratic  education  system. He  also  called  for  reform  of  the  House  of  Lords.

In  1886  Henry  opposed  the  Rivers  Purification  Bill  for  being  too  simplistic  in  its  prescriptions.

Henry  was  keenly  interested  in  education  generally. He  served  on  several  royal  commissions. From  1896  to  1902 he  was  vice-chancellor of  the  University  of  London.

Henry  was  knighted  in  1894.

In  1895  Henry  was  defeated  by  the  queen's  son-in-law the  Marquis  of  Lorne  standing  as  a  Liberal  Unionist.

Henry  was  Beatrix  Potter's  uncle.

He  died  in  1915  aged  82.