1089 Joseph Powell-Williams

Constituency :  Birmingham  South  1885-1904 ( from  1886  Liberal  Unionist )

Joseph  was  another  beneficiary  of  the  Liberal  caucus,  taking  Birmingham  South.

Joseph  was  the  son  of  a  vinegar  merchant  in  Worcester  . He was  educated  at  Hazlewood  School, Birmingham. He  worked  for  a  firm  of  solicitors  in  Birmingham  on  whose  behalf  he  travelled  to  the  USA. On  his  return  he  worked  for  the  Post  Office  where  he  befriended  Anthony  Trollope. He  later  became  chairman  of  the  Midland  Railway  Carriage  and  Wagon  Company. He  was  a  Congregationalist  who  became  a  close  associate  of  Chamberlain. He  was  elected  a  councillor  in  1877 and  became  chair  of  the  Finance  Committee.  He  was  an  advocate  of  county  government  and  wrote  a  paper  on  it  for  the  National  Liberal  Federation.

Joseph  was  inclined to  abstain  in  the  Home  Rule  vote having  previously  promised  "  to  give  the  Irish  as  much  local  government  as  ourselves" but  went  with  Chamberlain  out  of  friendship.  He  wrote  to  him  "I  would  not  be  guilty , whatever  may  be  my  own  opinion  upon  the  particular  point  at  issue,  of  the  meanness  of  standing  aloof  from  you  in  the  critical  moment. He  was  returned  unopposed  in  1886. He  became  chairman  of  the  new  Birmingham  Liberal  Unionist  Association and  Chamberlain's  chief  political  agent. He  arranged  for  Bright's  son  to  succeed  him  in  his  seat  when  Churchill  was  looking  to  stand  and  complained  of  difficulties  with  Birmingham  Tories  who  wanted  a  larger  slice  of  the  seats.

 He  served  on  Commons  committees  on  ground  rents  and  the  Manchester  Sheffield  and  Lincolnshire  Railway.

When  the  Liberal  Unionists  joined  the  government  in  1895  Joseph  became  Financial  Secretary  to  the  War  Office  and  held  that  position  until  1901. The  Daily  Chronicle  called  him  "a  square  peg  in  a  round  hole"  and  suggested  his  office  was  accident-prone.

Joseph  was  known  for  his  sense  of  humour  in  the  Commons  and  The  Times  noted  that  he  was  "greatly  esteemed  by  lobby  journalists  and  officials". The  Birmingham  Post  said  "He  kept  the  Liberal  Unionist  seats  going  and  the  alliance  with  the  Conservatives  alive".

In  1904  he  suffered  a  fatal  stoke  in  the  Commons  lobby. He  was  63.