Constituency : Bristol East 1885-90
Handel won the new seat of Bristol East.
Handel was the son of a carpenter from Thornbury and named after the composer. He was educated locally . He was a Congregationalist lay preacher and temperance advocate. In 1845 he became involved in the coal industry with a pit near Yate. His marriage expanded his business. He built houses and a school for his workers. He was a Bristol city councillor in the 1860s. He stood at Nottingham in 1866, Dewsbury in 1868 and Chippenham in 1874 without success. In 1873 he was involved in a Bristol scandal around misappropriation of funds. In 1876 he gave a lecture to Manchester's National Reforn Union on "The Land Question". He was Mayor of Bath from 1882 to 1885. He was described by the local Tory press as a "hack demagogue" and "virulent assailant of the Church".
Handel denounced military and imperial expenditure "now weighing so heavily on the industry and commerce of the country. He wanted to shift the rate burden from commerce to land. He supported Home Rule in his maiden speech believing "that the integrity of the Empire could be best secured by doing justice".
Handel died in 1890 after collapsing in the Commons library. He was 66. He left a bequest for the building of a hospital in Kingswood. At its opening in 1907 Augustine Birrell said "He was a most vigorous and energetic man , who applied himself with unsparing assiduity to his personal business and public work... So passed away a man whose aim in life was to do good , loved by many and respected by all."
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