Thursday, 1 September 2016

1312 Alfred Billson

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Constituency  : Barnstaple  1892-5, Halifax  1897-1900, North  West  Staffordshire  1906-07

Alfred  took  Barnstaple  after  the  retirement  of  the  Liberal  Unionist  George  Pitt-Lewis.

Alfred  was  a  solicitor, originally  from  Leicester. He  lived  in  Rowton  Castle  as  a  tenant  of  the  Conservative  peer  Baron  Rowton  but  was  free  to  become  an  active  Liberal. He  was  a  Congregationalist.  He  part  owned  the  Liverpool  Daily  Post.

Alfred  was  defeated  by  a  Liberal  Unionist  in  1895  and  failed  at  the  Bradford  East  by-election  in  1896. In  1897  he  got  back  in  at  a  by-election  in  Halifax.  He  came  third  in  1900.

Alfred  switched  his  attentions  to  Staffordshire  where  he  orchestrated  a  deal  with  the  unions  for  the  five  seats  whereby  they  would  provide  Lib-Lab  candidates  for  the  two  most  urban  seats  and  they  would  support  non - union  Liberals  in  the  other  three.  He  won  North  West  Staffordshire  in  1906.

Alfred  was  knighted  just  before  his  death.

He  collapsed  and  died  in  the  lobby  of  the  House  of  Commons  in  1907  aged  68.


 

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