1085 Alfred Pease

Constituency : York  1885-1892, Cleveland  1897-1902

Alfred  was  one  of  the  two  Liberal  winners  in  York  replacing  a  Tory  by-election  victor  and  the  retiring  Ralph Creyke.

Alfred  was  a  member  of  the  Quaker  Pease  dynasty. He  was  the  son  of  Sir  Joseph  Pease, the  MP  for  Barnard  Castle. He  was  educated  at  Grove  House  School  and  Cambridge.  He  started  working  in  the  family  bank. He  became  the  managing  director  of  the  Middlesbrough  Estate.

Alfred  stood  for  York  in  1892  and  1895  but  was  defeated. He  was  returned  for  Cleveland in  1897  despite  being  away  in  Somaliland  at  the  time.

Alfred  was  not  in  favour  of   MPs  receiving  instructions  from  their  constituents  writing  that  "Even  a  Radical  like  John  Bright  declared  that  it  was  a  duty  to  stand  like  a  "tiger"  in  the  path  of  people  if  they  are  wrong".

Unlike  other  members  of  the  family  Alfred  decided  to  stick  with  his  father  over  Home  Rule. He  described  the  Liberal  Unionists  thus : "Some  were  merely  Liberal  in  name ; others  were  Whigs; some  were  Liberals  apart  from  the  Irish  Question, others  were  Radicals, others  teetotal  fanatics  and  a  small  body  were  whatever  Chamberlain  was ". His  son  was  hit  by  a  rotten  pear  during  the  1886  campaign.

In  1900  Alfred  was  working  with  his  father  in  Darlington  and  missed  his  train  home  in  a  ferocious  blizzard. Given  that  his  father  was  chairman  of  the  North  Eastern  Railway  Company  a  one-carriage  special  was   rustled  up  to  get  him  home. After  he  had  alighted  his  train  got  stuck  in  a  drift  and  was  struck  by  a  subsequent  train  killing  a  fireman.

The  Pease  family  suffered  catastrophic  business  failure  at  the  turn  of  the  century. Alfred  resigned  his  seat  in  1902  to  pursue  new  opportunities  in  Africa. He worked  in  the  Transvaal  as  a  resident  magistrate  then  crossed  to  Sudan  churning  out  a  series  of  travel  books. He  succeeded  to  his  father's  baronetcy  in  1903.  In  1906  he  leased  a  farm  in  Kenya  close  to  the  Uganda  Railway  where  he  farmed  ostriches  and  hunted  game. He  also  played  host  to  many  famous  people  who  came  to  hunt  the  big  game  including  President  Rooseveldt  who  described  him  as  "a singularly  good  rider  and  one  of  the  best  game  shots I  have  ever  seen." In  1909  he  founded  the  Shikar  Club  for  big  game  hunters.

He  died  in  1939  aged  81.