1402 Charles McArthur

Constituency : Liverpool  Exchange 1897-1906  ( Liberal  Unionist ), Liverpool  Kirkdale  1907-10  ( Conservative )

Charles  took  over   for  the  Liberal  Unionists   at  Liverpool  Exchange  when  John  Bigham  became  a  judge. He  won  by  a  meagre  54  votes.

Charles  was  born  in  Port   Glasgow  but  brought  up  in  Bristol  where  he  was  educated  at  the  grammar  school. He  became  an  average  adjuster  in  the  maritime  insurance  business. He  was  chairman  of  the  Association  of  Average  Adjusters  of  the  United  Kingdom  and  President  of  the  Liverpool  Chamber  of  Commerce  from  1892  to  1896.  He  served  on  a  number  of  maritime  insurance  committees  and  wrote  books  on  the  subject.

Charles  was  a  frequent  contributor  to  the  House  on  maritime  matters.

In  1900  Charles  was  returned  with  an  increased  majority.

Charles  was  committed  to  free  trade  but  his  staunch  opposition  to  Home  Rule  kept  him  in  the  Liberal  Unionists  when  the  tariff  reform  controversy  broke. He  was  defeated  in  1906.

Shortly  afterwards  Charles  joined  the  Conservatives  and  in  1907  he  was  returned  for  the   safer  seat  of  Kirkdale  defeating  a  Labour  candidate. He  declared  it  a  great  victory for  "the Protestants  of  Kirkdale"  over  socialists  and  Irish  nationalists.

In  1908  Charles  presented  a  petition  for  the  release  of  protestant  agitator  George  Wise  who had  been  imprisoned  for  repeated  breaches  of  the  peace. Charles  was  opposed  to  the  Roman Catholic  Disabilities  Removal  Bill  in  1909  on  the  grounds  that  it  threatened  the  Protestant succession.

Charles   retained   his  seat  in  January  1910  but  died  6  months  later  from  a  gastric  illness. He  was  66.