1364 Charles Scott

Constituency  :  Leigh  1895-1906

Charles  took  over  from  Caleb  Wright  at  Leigh.

Charles  was  born  in  Bath, the  son  of  a  newspaper  owner. He  was  educated  at  Clapham  Grammar  School  and  Oxford.  He  went  to  Edinburgh  in  1870  to  work  on  The  Scotsman   but  the  following  year  became  London  editor  of  The  Manchester  Guardian  which  was  owned  by  his  cousin  John  Taylor. He  became  full  editor  the  following  year.  He  at  first  followed  a  moderate  Whig  line  but  after  the  Liberal  Unionist  split  in  1886  he  backed  Gladstone  and  the  Newcastle  Programme.  He  fought  Manchester  North  East  in  1886, 1891  and  1892. He  was  a  Unitarian.  He  was  also    president  of  the  Manchester  Liberal  Federation.

While  in  Parliament  Charles  harassed  the  government  over  its  imperial  policies  and  was  also  fiercely  critical  of  the  1902  Education  Act.  He  was  keenly  interested  in  higher  education  and  was  a  member  of  the  council  of  Owens  College  from  1890  to  1898. He  also  supported  Lords  reform.

Having  only  a  small  majority  to  start  with , Charles  just  scraped  home  in  1900  after  the paper  took  a  stand  against  the  Boer  War. Both  his  home  and  offices  needed  police  protection.

Charles's  parliamentary  career  was  cut  short  by  Taylor's  death  in  1905. Taylor's  will  expressed  a  desire  that  Charles  should  be  able  to  buy  the  paper  but  it  was  not  drafted  tightly  enough  to  prevent  the  other  trustees  fleecing  him. He  had  to  take  out  large  loans   to  buy  the  paper  and  decided  he  must  let  go  of  his  seat  in  order  to  make  it  a  success.

As  editor  and  owner  of  the  paper  Charles  was  probably  the  most  influential  Liberal  outside Parliament.  He  was  somewhat  disturbed  by  the  virulence  of  Lloyd  George's  Mansion  House speech. He  was  sympathetic  to  female  suffrage  but  deplored  the  suffragettes'  militant  tactics. He  had  a  regular  correspondence  with  the  Pankhursts , repeatedly  trying  to  get  them  to  calm down..He backed  the  government's  social  reform   measures.  When  war  broke  out  he  initially supported  the  Cabinet  rebels  like  Burns  and  Morley  but  he  declined  to  join  the  Union  of Democratic  Control  writing "I  am  strongly  of  the  opinion  that  the  war  ought  not  to  have taken  place  and  that  we  ought  not  to  have  become  parties  to  it , but  once  in  it  the  whole future  of  our  nation  is  at  stake  and  we  have  no  choice  but  do  the  utmost  we  can  to  secure success."  He  did  not  criticise  the  government  over  the  executions  of  the  Irish  rebel  leaders; "it  is  a  fate  which  they  invoked  and  of  which  they  would  probably  not  complain".

 Charles's   decision  to  endorse  Lloyd  George  in  1916  still  puzzles  historians. He  had  opposed  conscription  in  1916  and  he  backed  Henderson's  ideas  for  a  negotiated  settlement  in  1917.He  was  opposed  to  imposing  punitive  sanctions  on  Germany  at  Versailles  and  criticised  Llloyd  George's  handling  of  the  negotiations.   In  an  essay  to  mark  the paper's  centenary  in  1921  he  made  the  famous  assertion, "comment  is  free, but  facts  are sacred".  He  worked  for  Liberal  reunion  after  1922.  In  1926  he  condemned  the  General  Strike.  In  1929  he  purchased  the  Manchester Evening  News.

Charles  rode  into  work  on  his  bike in  all  weathers   when  well  past  80  and  blind  in  one  eye.

Charles  finally  retired  as  editor  in  1929  after  57  years  ,  a  world  record. He  remained  as Governing  Director  of  the  company  and  was  in  the  office  most  evenings.

Charles  was  generally  known  as  C.P. Scott, his  middle  name  being  Prestwich.

He  died  on  New  Year's  Day  1932  aged  85.