1604 Alfred Mason

Constituency : Coventry 1906-10




Alfred  took  Coventry  from  the  Tories.




Alfred  was  born  in  Camberwell  and  educated  at  Dulwich  College  and  Oxford. He  initially  became  an  actor  and  then  turned  to  writing. He  published  his  first  novel, A  Romance  of  Wastdale  in  1895. His  most  famous  novel  was  the  tale  of  cowardice  and  redemption  The  Four  Feathers  ( 1902 )  which  has  been  filmed  on a  number of  occasions.




Alfred's  main  contribution  to  the  House  was  a  speech  expressing  disappointment  with  the  Licensing  Bill in  1908.




Alfred  stood  down  in  January  1910.




Later  that  year  Alfred  published  the  first  of  a  series  of  novels  featuring  Inspector  Hanaud, a  figure  set  up  to  be  a  deliberate  contrast  to  Sherlock  Holmes.




Alfred  served  in  World  War  One  with  the  Manchester  Regiment, reaching  the  rank  of  Major. He  worked  in  naval  intelligence.




He  died  in  1948  aged  83.

1603 Ernest Meysey-Thompson

Constituency : Birmingham  Handsworth  1906-12  ( Liberal  Unionist ) 1912-22 
(Conservative )


Ernest  took  over  from  his  father  Henry  in  representing  the  seat  for  the  Liberal Unionists. He  held  off  a  challenge  from the  former  Buckingham MP  Herbert  Leon.


Ernest  was  educated  at  Eton  and  Cambridge. He  joined  the  army  and  was  an  officer  in  the  Yorkshire  Hussars. He  was  promoted  to captain  in  1902. He  contested  Buckrose  in  1900  losing  by  91  votes.


Ernest  commanded   a  brigade  of  the  Royal  Field  Artillery in  the  First  World  War. He reached  the  rank of  lieutenant-colonel. He  also  acted  as  a  recruiting  champion  locally  at  Kitchener's  request. In  1916  he  spoke  passionately  in  favour  of  the  Military  Service  Bill.


Ernest  supported  the  Trade  Union  Act  of  1922  requiring  consent  for  funds  to  be  spent  on  political  purposes.


Ernest  stood  down  in  1922.


He  died  in  1944  aged  85.

1602 James Haslam

Constituency  : Chesterfield  1906-09, 1909-13  ( Labour )

James  took  over  from  Thomas  Bayley  at  Chesterfield  as  a  Liberal-Labour  candidate.

James  was  a  founder  member  then  Secretary  of  the  Derbyshire  Miners  Association. He  had  started  work  in  the  pits  at  10. He  stood  for  Chesterfield  as  an independent  Radical, coming  third  in  1885.

James  asked  a  couple  of  questions  during  his  time  in  the  Commons.

James  obeyed  the  instruction  to  switch  to  the  Labour  whip  in  1909. During  his  January 1910  campaign  he  gave  ambiguous  replies  as  to  whether  he  had  actually  made  the  switch. 

He  died  in  1913  aged  71.

1601 Frank Newnes

Constituency : Bassetlaw  1906-10

Frank  took  Bassetlaw  from  the  Tories.

Frank  was  the  son  of  the  newspaper  publisher  and  MP  for  Swansea, George  Newnes. He  was  educated  privately  before  going  to  Cambridge. He  followed  his  father  into  the  newspaper  business  and  eventually  became  head  of  the  family  firm. He  also  had  business  interests  in  insurance  and  financial  services. He was  a  director  of  Country  Life.

Frank  made  little  impression  in  Parliament.

Frank  was  narrowly  defeated  in  January  1910 and  succeeded  to  his  father's  baronetcy  later  that  year.

Frank served  in  both  the  navy  and  the  army  during  World  War  One.

Frank  served  on  a  number  of  public  health  bodies.

In  later  life,  he  emigrated  to  Western  Australia  and  died  there  in  1955  aged  78.

1600 Hamar Greenwood

Constituency : York 1906-10, Sunderland 1910-22,Walthamstow East 1924-9 ( Constitutionalist  then  Conservative )

Hamar  took  one  of  the  York  seats  from  the  Tories. He  topped  the  poll  as  the  only  Liberal  candidate.

Hamar  was  the  son  of  a  Welsh  emigrant  lawyer  in  Canada. He  was  educated  at  Toronto  University  and  worked  in  the  Ontario  agriculture  department. He  was  also  an  officer  in  the  Canadian  militia. In  1895  he  emigrated  to  England  and  became  a  barrister. He  helped  raise  a  company  for  the  Boer  War  in  1902. Hamar  was  a  teetotaller, probably  the  main  reason  he  joined  the  Liberals.

Hamar's  close  association  with  Churchill  began  when  he  became  his  parliamentary  private  secretary  in  1906. His  speeches  on  imperial  defence  were  more  in  line  with  Tory  than  Liberal  thinking.

In  January  1910  the  Liberals  put  two  candidates  forward  in  York  and  Hamar  came  a  narrow  third  behind  Arnold  Rowntree  and  a Tory. He  switched  to  Sunderland  for  the  December  1910  election and  topped  the  poll.

In  August  1914, Hamar  joined  the  recruiting  department  at  the  War  Office  and  raised  a  company  which  he  commanded  in  France.

Hamar  was  created  a baronet  in  1915.

Hamar  supported  Lloyd  George  and  received  the  coupon  alongside  a  Tory  in  1918. They  were  both  elected  well  ahead  of  the  Labour  candidate.

In  1919,  Hamar  served  in  a  number  of  junior  ministerial  posts  before  being  promoted  to  Chief  Secretary  for  Ireland  in  1920. He  easily won  the  consequent  by-election  against  Labour  and  Asquithian  opponents. Hamar's  aggressive  defence  of  the  Black  and  Tans'  actions  in  Ireland, particularly  the  burning  of  Cork, led  many  contemporaries  and  subsequent  historians  to  doubt  he  was  a  genuine  Liberal  at  all. The  phrase  to  "tell  a  Greenwood"  came  into  use  after  his  evasions. Lloyd  George  arranged  the  truce  of  1921  without  consulting  him and  he  played  no  significant  part  in  the  Treaty  negotiations.

Hamar  came  third  in  1922  and  then  a  close  fourth  in  1923  with  both  Liberals  narrowly  failing  to get  elected.

In  1924  Hamar  switched  to Walthamstow  East  and following  Churchill's  example, stood  as  a  Constitutionalist  supporting  an  anti-Labour  alliance  between  Liberals  and  Tories.  The  local Tories  supported  him  but  not  the  Liberals  who  put  up  their  own  candidate. Hamar  won  fairly  comfortably  with  Labour  coming  second.

With  the  Liberals  suffering  a  shattering  defeat  and  a  comfortable  Conservative  majority, Hamar  decided  to  take  their  whip  in  Parliament.

Hamar  decided  to  step  down  in  1929  and  was  raised  to  the  peerage  as  Baron  Greenwood. He  was  treasurer  of  the  Conservative  party  in  the  1930s  and  raised  a  lot  of  money  from his  business  friends. In  1937  he  was  upgraded  to  Viscount  Greenwood. In  1938  he  became  president  of  the  British  Iron  and  Steel  Federation. In  1943  he  became  president  of  the  Pilgrims  Society  promoting  closer  ties  between  Britain  and  the  US.

He  died  in  1948  aged  78.

1599 William Clough

Constituency : Skipton 1906-18

William  took  over  from  Frederick  Whitley-Thomson  at  Skipton.

William  was  educated  at  Keighley  Trade  School  and  Pannal  College. He  was  a  Wesleyan  Sunday  School  teacher.

William  was  a  moderate  centrist  Liberal but  he once  described  the  bishops  in  the  House  of  Lords  as  "greedy  and  grasiping  grabbers, alias  the  purse-proud  presumptuous  prelates".

William  hung  on  by  just  51  votes  in  December 1910. As he  was  leaving  the  count , a  Tory  woman  hit  him  with  an  umbrella. He  remonstrated  with  her and  may or  may  not  have  hit  her. Her  solicitors  asked  for  an  apology  and  received  it  plus  costs. A  local  barrister  wrote  to  The  Craven  Herald  describing  him  as  "a  vulgar  hypocrite". He  sued  both  man  and  paper  but  lost.

William  aided  in  recruitment  during  the  First  World  War.

William  stood  down  in  1918.

He  died  in  1937 aged  74.

1598 Percy Illingworth

Constituency : Shipley  1906-15

Percy  won  Shipley, previously  held  by  the  Liberal   Unionist  James  Flannery who  decided  not  to  stand. Percy  was  therefore  unopposed.

Percy  was  from  a  well  known  firm  of  Bradford  spinners .Percy  was  the  grandson  of  the  former  Yorkshire  MP  Isaac  Holden. He  was  educated  at  Cambridge  and  became  a  barrister. He  served  in  the  Boer  War.He  stood  in  1900  and  lost  by  just  61  votes. He  was  a  Baptist.

Percy's  maiden  speech  was  in  support  of  disestablishing  the  church. He  spoke  against  the  idea  of  conscription  in  1913. He  was enthused  by  the  land  campaign  in  1913.

Percy  was  Parliamentary  Private  Secretary  to  the  Irish  Secretary  from  1906  to  1910. In  1910  he  was  made  a  whip In  1912  he  was  promoted  to  Chief  Whip.He  was  a  trustee  of  the  fund  created  by  the  party's  investment  in  Marconi. He  was  a  popular  MP  liked  on  both  sides  of  the  house

In  1915  he died  suddenly  from  food  poisoning  from  a  bad  oyster. He  was  45. Lloyd  George  later  said  he  could  have  prevented  the  rift  with  Asquith  if  he'd  still  been  around.

1597 John Tudor Walters

Constituency : Sheffield  Brightside  1906-22, Penryn  and  Falmouth 1929-31

John  took Sheffield  Brightside  from  the  Tories.

John  was  an  architect  and  surveyor  by  profession.

John  was   knighted  in  1912.

In  1917  John  chaired   a  Committee  on  housing  which  produced  the  Tudor  Walters  Report . This  called  for  better  housing  with  inside  sanitation, slum  clearance  and  semi-detached  houses  built  to  a  high  construction  standard. It  influenced  the  Housing  and  Town  Planning  Act  of  1919.  John  was  a  director  in  a  garden  suburb  company.

Ironically  John  then  became  Paymaster-General  in  the  Lloyd  George  government  after  discovering  that  Christopher  Addison's  houses  were  costing  the  government  too  much  in  building  materials

In  1922,  John  was  decisively  defeated  in  a  two-cornered  contest  by  the  former  Liberal  MP  Arthur  Ponsonby  standing  for  Labour.

In  1923  John  failed  to  get  back  in  at  Pudsey, coming  second  to  the  Conservative  candidate.

In  1929  John  won  Penryn  and  Falmouth   from  the  Unionists. He  opposed  Lloyd  George's  proposal  for  a  time-limited  pact  with  Labour  but  supported  keeping  them  in  office  while  they  pursued  acceptable  policies.

John  briefly  joined  the  National  Government  in  his  old  role  as  Paymaster-General  but  stood  down  when  an  election  was  called.

He  died  in  1933  aged  65.

1596 Walter Rea

Constituency : Scarborough  1906-18, Bradford  North  1923-4, Dewsbury  1931-5

Walter  took  over  at  Scarborough  from  Joseph  Compton-Rickett  who  had  successfully  switched  to  Osgoldcross.

Walter  was  the  son  of  the  MP  for  Gloucester, Russell  Rea. He  was  a  British  merchant  banker.

In  December  1914  Walter's  home  in  Scarborough  was  hit  by  a  shell  causing  extensive  damage. He  worked  to  secure  restoration  funds  for  the  town.

Walter  was  a  junior  whip  from  1915  to  1916.

Walter's  seat  was  abolished  in  1918.

Walter  stood  for  Bradford  North  in  1922  and  came  quite  close  to  taking  it. He  gained  the  seat  by  a  slim  majority  in  1923  but  came  third  in  1924.

In  1931   Walter  stood  for  Dewsbury  and  won  without  Conservative  opposition  leading  some  to  mistakenly  label  him  a  Liberal  National. He  was  Comptroller  of  the  Household  in  1931-2  but  resigned  along  with  Samuel  over  Free  Trade.He  became  an  opposition  whip.

In  1935  Walter  came  third  behind  Labour  and  National  Labour.

Walter  was  created  a  baronet  in  1935. In  1937  he  was  upgraded  to  Baron  Rea.

He  died  in  1948  aged  75.

1595 Herbert Lynch

Constituency : Ripon  1906-10

Henry  took  Ripon  from  the Tories.

Henry  was  the son  of  a famed  explorer  of  landed  Irish  stock. He  was  educated  at  Eton  and  Cambridge. He  qualified  as  a  barrister  but  worked  in  the  family  business  exporting  goods  from  Britain  to  Mesopotamia. He  became  company  chairman  in  1896.

Henry  was  defeated  in  January  1910.

Henry's  grandmother  was  Armenian  and  he  published  a  two  volume  work  on  the  region  in  1901  which  made  him  an  authority. Most  of  his  parliamentary  contributions  were  about  the  Near  East.

He  died  at  Calais  in  1913  aged  51.

1594 Francis Acland

Constituency : Richmond  1906-10, Camborne 1910-22, Tiverton 1923-4, North Cornwall 1932-9

Francis  had  a  narrow  victory  over  the  Tories  in  Richmond.

Francis  was  the  son  of  the  former  MP  and  education  minister  Arthur  Acland. He  was  educated  at  Rugby  and  Oxford. He  started  work  in  local  government  in  Kensington  and  then  West  Yorkshire.

Francis  was  an  adherent  of  the  "New  Liberalism ". He  was  a  leading  supporter  of  female  suffrage.

Francis  served  as  Parliamentary  Private  Secretary  for  Haldane  at  the  War  Office  from  1906  to  1908. He  switched  to  Financial  Secretary  in  the  same  department  when  Asquith  took  over  in  1908

Francis  was  defeated  at Richmond  in  January  1910  then  switched  to  Camborne  for  the   December election.

In  1911  Francis  was  promoted  to  Under  secretary  of  state  under  Grey  at  the Foreign  Office.

In  February  1915,  Francis  became  Financial  Secretary  to  the  Treasury. In  June  1915  he  was  switched  to  Parliamentary  Secretary  to  the  Board  of  Agriculture  and  Fisheries. His  ministerial  career came  to  an  end  in  1916.

In  1917  Francis  chaired  a  Departmental  Committee  looking  into  unqualified  dentists. His  report  led  to  the  Dentists  Act  of  1921. This  established  the  Dental  Board  of  the  United  Kingdom  and  Francis  was  the  first  chairman, holding  the  post  until  his  death. He  was  also  instumental  in  setting  up  the  Forestry  Commission  and  remained  a  commissioner  until  his  death.

Francis  remained  loyal  to  Asquith  but  he  was  left  unmolested  at  Camborne  because  the  Conservative  candidate  was  stranded  in  India  .He  held  the  seat   narrowly  against  a  Labour  candidate. He  chaired  the  first  meeting  of  the  independent  LIberals  in  Parliament. He  opposed  Lloyd  George's  line  on  the  peace  process.

Francis  switched  to  Tiverton  for  the  1922  election, failing  to  unseat  the  Conservative  by  74  votes. Francis  took  the  seat  by  495  votes  at  a  by-election  shortly  afterwards  then  held  it  by  3  votes  in  the  general  election  of   1923. He  was  defeated  in  1924  and  Palmerston's  old  seat  hasn't  had  a  Liberal  MP  since.

Francis  succeeded  to  his  father's  baronetcy  in  1926.

Francis  stood  for  North  Cornwall  in  1932  after  the  death  of  Donald  Mclean. He  held  the  seat  for  the  Liberals  in  a  straight  fight  with  the  Tories  and  retained  it  in  1935.

Francis  was  a  champion  of  allotments.

He died  in  1939  aged  65. Both  his  sons  became  Liberal  MPs.

1593 Robert Arrmitage

Constituency  : Leeds  Central  1906-22

Robert  took  Leeds  Central  from  the  Tories.

Robert  was  educated  at  Westminster  School  and  Cambridge  and  became  a  barrister . He  was also   an  ironmaster  and  director  of  several  mining  companies. He  was  Lord  Mayor  of  Leeds  in  1904-05.

Robert  raised  the  issue  of  non-attendance  at  school  in  Parliament.

Robert  had  an  easy  win  as  a  couponed  Liberal  in  1918  but  came  third  in  1922.

In  1919  Robert  addressed  a  public  meeting  in  Leeds  in  protest  at  anti-Jewish  pogroms  in  Eastern  Europe.

He  died  in  1944  aged  77.

1592 Charles Wilson

Constituency : Kingston-upon-Hull  West  1906-07

Charles  succeeded  his  father  of  the  same  name  who  had  stepped  down  and  become  ennobled  as  Baron  Nunburnholme.

Charles  was  one  of  the  heirs  to  the  family  shipping  business. Charles  was  a  lieutenant  in  the  City  of  London  Imperial  Volunteers  who  fought  in  the  Boer  War.. He  won  the  DSO  in  1901.

Charles's  parliamentary  contributions  were  mainly  on  shipping  matters.

Charles's  father  died  in  1907  so  Charles  succeeded  to  the  barony  and  went  to  the  Lords.

At  Lord  Kitchener's  request, Charles  called  together  the  Hull  Pals  battalion  in  1914.

He  died  in  1924 aged  49.

1591 Thomas Ferens

Constituency : Kingston-upon-Hull  East  1906-18

Thomas  took  Hull  East  from  the  Tories. He  gave  a  sovereign  to  all  his  employees  to  celebrate.

Thomas  was  born  in   County  Durham. His  father  was  a  flour  miller  and  he  started  work  as  a  clerk  on  the  Stockton  and  Darlington  Railway. He  was  largely  self-taught. In  1868  he  left  Stockton  for  a  clerical  post  at  Reckitt &  Sons  in  Hull. The  firm  was  already  a  successful  producer  of  household  goods  but  Thomas  moved  quickly  through  the  ranks  and  became  a  director  in  1888  when   it  became  a  private  joint  stock  company.  He  oversaw  its  branching  into  pharmaceuticals  and  became  chairman. He  was  a  Wesleyan  Methodist   and  Sunday  school  tutor. He  stood  for  Hull  East  in  1906.

Thomas  was  a  member  of  the  Inter-Parliamentary  Union  before  the  War. He  was   a  supporter  of  female  suffrage. He  was  concerned  with  the  trafficking  of  women  in  the  colonies. He  was  a  teetotaller  and  in  1913  became  treasurer  of  the  United  Kingdom  Alliance. .

Thomas  was  defeated  by  the  couponed  Conservative  Charles  Murchison  who  attacked  him  as  a  "Little  Englander"  who  had  wanted  to  reduce  the size  of  the  navy  before  the  war. Thomas  vowed  never  to  stand  for  Parliament  again.

Thomas  was  an  active  supporter  of  the  League  of  Nations. In  1923  he  joined  with  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  in  launching  the  National  United  Campaign  of  the  Churches  for  temperance.

Thomas  was  a  lifelong  philanthropist. He  donated  the  land  for  the  Ferens  Art  Gallery  i  Hull  which  opened  in  1927. He  donated  money  for  schools  all  over  the  country. He  is  the  founder  of  Hull  University  which  opened  in  1929. He  consistently  refused  honours.

He  died  in  1930  aged  83. His  adopted  son  Till  stood  for  the  Liberals  at  Gainsborough  in  1935.

1590 John Wadsworth

Constituency : Hallamshire  1906-09, 1909-15  ( Labour ), 1915-18

John  took  over  from  the  long-serving  Frederick  Mappin. He  was  a  Liberal- Labour  candidate.

John  was  a  miner  and  checkweighman  from  West  Yorkshire. He  rose  through  the  Yorkshire  Miners  Association  and  in  1904  became  its  President. He  was  a  Congregationalist.

In  1908, John  was  one  of  the  TUC's  two  representatives  to  the  American  Federation  of  Labour. His  parliamentary  contributions  were  largely  on  mining  issues.

John  obeyed  the  MFGB  instruction  to  take  the  Labour  whip  in  1909  but  he  was  a  very  unenthusiastic  conscript..The  Liberals  did  not  oppose  him  in  the  1910  elections  and  he  defected  back  to  them  in  1915.

In  1917  John  praised  the  work  done  by  German  P.O.W.s  in  the  mines  in  a  report

John  stood  down  when  the  seat  was  abolished  in  1918.

He  died  in  1921  aged  71.

1589 Charles Nicholson

Constituency : Doncaster 1906-18

Charles  took  Doncaster  from  the  Tories.

Charles's  father  was  secretary  to  two  Liberal  Lord  Chancellors, Lord  Truro  and  Lord  Cranworth. He  was  educated  at  Charterhouse  and  Cambridge  and  became  a  barrister.. However  he  never  really  practised  and  worked  in  the  Lunacy  Office. He  was  also  involved  in  local  politics  in  Shoreditch.

Charles  supported  female  suffrage.

Charles  was  created  a  baronet  in  1912.

In  1915  Charles   got  together  a  small  group  of  MPs  together, known  as  the  "seven  wise  men", to  resist  conscription  but  when  the  crunch  came  the  following  year  , he  was  a  Lloyd  George  supporter  and  received  the  coupon  in  1918. However  he  died  of  pneumonia  at  the  star  of  the  campaign  aged  61  and  had  to  be  replaced  by  his  brother  Reginald.

1588 William Priestley

Constituency : Bradford  East  1906-18

William  took  Bradford  East  from  the  Tories.

William  was  the  son  of  the  mill owner  and   former  MP  for  Pudsey, Briggs  Priestley. He  contested  the  seat  in  1900. He  was  Mayor  of  Bradford  from  1904  to  1905.

William  was  a  passionate  Free  Trader.

William  gave  a  dinner  to  Bradford  City's  FA Cup  Final  squad  in  1911.

In  1913  the  local  Trades  Council  were  determined  to  oppose  William  at  the  next  election.

William  was  involved  in  recruitment  in  Bradford  during  World  War  One.

William  was  defeated  by  a  National  Democratic  Party  candidate  in  1918.

William  was  a  vice-president  of  the  Bronte  Society  from  1909  to  1920.

He  died  in  1932 aged  72.

1587 George Robertson

Constituency :  Bradford  Central  1906-16

George  defeated  the  Liberal  Unionist  James  Wanklyn  to  take  the  seat.

George  was  born  in  London  and  educated  at  the  Westminster  Hospital  Medical  School. In  1878  he  joined  the  Indian  Medical  Service  and  served  in  the  Anglo-Afghan  War  of  1878-80. In  1888  he  switched  to  the  Indian  Foreign  Office  and  a  year  later  set  out  on  an  exploratory  journey  to  the  region  of  Kafiristan. This  provided  the  material  for  his  book  The  Kafirs  of  the  Hindu  Kush  published  in  1896. His  subsequent  adventures  in  India  became  more  political  than  medical  and  in  1895  he  was  besieged  in  Chitral  Fort. He  retired  from  the  Indian  Service  in  1899. He  stood  for  Stirlingshire  in  1900.

He  died  on  New  Year's  Day, 1916  aged  63.

1586 William Lever

Constituency  : Wirral  1906-10

William  took  Wirral  from  the  Tories. He  was  one  of  the  most  prominent  industrialists  of  the  early  twentieth  century  especially  around  my  neck  of  the  woods.

William  was  a  grocer's  son  from  Bolton. He  was  educated  privately  in  Bolton  and  started  work  in  his  father's  store. He  was  a  Congregationalist. In  1879  he  took  over a  failing  grocery  business  in  Wigan. William  made  his  fortune  by  selling  quality  soap  under  the  "Sunlight  "  brand. He  thought  the  business  would  be  better  off  manufacturing  its  own  product  which  did  so  well  that  he  had  to  build  on  a  new  site  near  Birkenhead  in  1887  to  fulfil  his  orders. He  built  the  model  village  of  Port  Sunlight  alongside  the  works  to  house  his  workers  although  some  felt  the  rules  were  a  bit  intrusive. William  was  a  staunch  teetotaller  and  thought  the  pub, The  Bridge, should  be a  temperance  establishment; nevertheless  he  yielded  to  a  referendum  result  that  it  should  sell  beer.  Lever  Brothers  expanded  to  make  him  a  millionaire  with  works  all  over  the  world. It  became  the  first  modern  multinational.

Shortly  after  his  election  William  chaired  a  meeting   of  soap  manufacturers  which  formed  the  Soap  Trust, a  cartel  to  meet  the  challenge  of  rising  raw  material  costs, A  press  campaign  against  it  by  Lord  Northcliffe  eventually  broke  it  up  by  urging  a  consumer  boycott.  William  sued  Associated  Newspapers  Limited  for  libel. William  won  the  case  and  got  nearly  £100,000  in  damages  which  he  donated  to  Liverpool  University.

William  introduced  the  Old  Age  Pensions  Bill  in  1906. He  was  a  leading  part donor  who  supported  graduated  taxation  and  state  intervention. He  also  supported  payment  of  MPs  and  the  eight  hour  day. His  last  speech  in  the  Commons  gave  strog  support  to  the  People's  Budget.

William  stood  down  in   January  1910  and  was  created  a  baronet  the  following  year.

In  1911  William  bought  palm  oil  plantations  in  the  Belgian  Congo. He  has  been  accused  of  turning  a  blind  eye  to  the  terrible  working  conditions  there.

In  1917  William  was  upgraded  to  Baron  Leverhulme.

After  World  War  One  he  bought  the  Isle  of  Lewis  and  a  large  part  of  Harris  in  order  to  develop  the  fishing  industry  there  but  ran  into  opposition  from  the  crofters  and  the  scheme  was  largely  a  failure.

In  1919  William  made  his  last  speech  to  the  Lords,  urging  a  more  relaxed  view  of  labour  unrest.

In  1922  William  was  upgraded  to  a  viscount.

William  was  a  generous  benefactor  to  his  home  town  creating  a  substantial  park. He  also  bequeathed  an  estate  northwest  of  the  town  near  Rivington  where  he  had  indulged  his  architectural  and  botanical  fantasies. For  many  years  after  his  death  the  gardens  were  allowed  to  run  wild  making  it  a  fascinating  area  to  explore  but  it  has  been  tidied  up  in  recent  years. He  was  also  responsible  for  preserving  the  home  of  Samuel Crompton  as  a  museum.

William  was  a  keen  art  collector  and  created  the  Lady  Lever Art  Gallery.

He  died  of  pneumonia   after  returning  from  Africa  in  1925  aged  73.

1585 William Burnyeat

Constituency : Whitehaven  1906-10

William  took  Whitehaven  from  the  Tories.

William  was  the  son  of  a  local  ironmaster. He  was educated  at  Rugby  and  Oxford.He  became  a  barrister.

In  1908  William  married  a  German  woman , Hildegard  Retlazz, who  he  met  on  holiday  in  Sicily.

Apart  from  a  couple  of  questions  William  made  no  parliamentary  contribution.

William  stood  down  in  January  1910.

In  August   1915  a  German  U-boat  shelled  the  works  at  Lowca  near  William's  home. There  were  rumours  of  bright  lights  flashing  near  his  house  before  the  attack  and  suspicion  fell  on  Hildegard  who  had  unwisely  defended  her  countrymen  in  public. She  was  interned  under  the  Defence  of  the  Realm  Act, as  much  for  her  protection  as  anything  else.

He  died  in  1916  aged  42. Hildegard  was  allowed  out  to  be  at  his  bedside.

1584 Arthur Crosfield

Constituency :  Warrington  1906-10

Arthur took  Warrington  from  the  Tories.

Arthur  was  from  a  family  of  soap  and  candle  manufacturers. They  were originally  Quakers  but  had  moved  towards  Anglicanism.

Arthur   was  defeated  in  December  1910.

Arthur  sold  his  stake  in  the  company  in  1911  and  built  a  huge  mansion  in  London  on  the  proceeds.

Arthur  was  created  a  baronet  in  1915.

Arthur  was  interested  in  the Balkans  and  wrote  The  Settlement  of  the  Near  East  in  1922.

Arthur  lost  a  fortune in  a  failed  mining  venture  in  Greece  in  the  1930s.

Arthur's  wife  Domini , a  Greek  tennis  player  and  heiress , was  an  active  Liberal  herself  and  stood  for  Islington  in  1929.

Arthur  was  a keen  golfer, winning  the  French  amateur  open  championship in  1905.

He  died  after  falling  out  of  a  French  train  in  1938   aged  73.

1583 John Astbury

Constituency : Southport  1906-18

John  took  Southport  from  the  Tories.

John  was an  accountant's  son  from  Broughton, Salford. He  was  educated  at  Manchester  Grammar  School  and  Oxford. He became  a  barrister.  He  was  a  specialist  in  patent  law.

John  made  a  few  contributions  to  Parliament  on  legal  issues.

John  stood  down  in  January  1910.

John  was  knighted  in  1913  when  he  became  a  High  Court  judge. He  gave  a  injunction  in  favour  of  the  National  Sailors  and  Firemens'  Union  during  the  General  Strike in  1926.

John  retired  in  1929  when  he  became  blind.

He  died  in  1939  aged  79.

1582 George Agnew

Constituency : Salford  West  1906-18

George  took  Salford  West  from  the  Tories.

George  was the  son  of  the  former  Stretford  MP  William  Agnew. He  was  educated  at  Rugby  and  Cambridge. He  was  a  partner  in  the  family  firm  of  art  dealers  and  also  had  an  interest  in  the  magazine  Punch. He  was  a  governor  of  Manchester Victoria  University  and  the  Royal  Manchester  Children's  Hospital.

George's   maiden  speech  was  on  the  House  of  Lords  in  1907.

George  succeeded  to  his  father's  baronetcy  in  1910.

George  served  on  the  raising  committee  for  the  Salford  Pals  in  1914. He  served  on  the  Liberal  War  Committee  but  was  not  a  Llloyd  George  partisan. He  wanted  the  committee  to  declare  its  support  for  any  administration  that  would  more  vigorously  prosecute  the  war  without  naming  an  individual.

George's  last  speech  was in  1918  urging  that  the luxury  tax  be  not  too  hard  on  artists.

George  stood  down  in  1918.

He  died  in  1941  aged  89.

1581 Hilaire Belloc

Constituency : Salford South 1906-10

Hilaire  took  Salford  South  from  the  Tories  by  a  fairly  narrow  margin  to  become  the  most  colourful  of  the  new  intake.

Hilaire  was  born  in  France  but  his  mother  was  English. His  father  died  early  and  his  mother  brought  the  children  to  England. He  was  educated  at  John  Henry  Newman's  Oratory  School then  served  in  an  artillery  unit  as  a  French  citizen  before  going  to  Oxford. He  was  a  big  man  and  a  keen  walker. He  married  an  American  girl.  He  contributed  to  the  1897  book  Essays  in  Liberalism  , revealing  that  his  hero  was  Cobbett  rather  than  Cobden. He  became  a  naturalised  citizen  in  1902. That  year  he  had  published  The  Path  To  Rome, an  account  of  his  walking  pilgrimage  from  France  to  Rome  which  has  stayed  in  print. He  often  wrote  in  collaboration  with  G K  Chesterton.  He  was  a  strong  Catholic  and  an  opponent  of  evolution.. He  had  no  steady  employment  and  was  often  short  of  money.

Hilaire  opposed  the  parts  of  the  1906  Education  Bill  that  related  to  Catholics  and  correctly  predicted  that  The Catholic  vote  would  transfer  to  the  Labour party  in  due  course. He  criticised  the  government  over  the  Chinese  coolie  compromise  and  made  no  secret  of  his  contempt  for  militant  temperance  cmpaigners. He  opposed  female  suffrage  in  a  rather  flippant  way  saying  women  were  above  parliamentary  politics  which  infuriated  both  sides.

In  1907,  Hilaire's  most  popular  book  Cautionary  Tales  for  Children  was  published,  a  satire  on  Victorian  moral  primers.

Hilaire  was  a  doctrinaire  opponent  of  state  intervention. He  described  Lloyd  George's  Budget  speech  in  1909  as  the  worst  of  all  time.

Hilaire  held  the  seat  by  316  votes  in  January  1910  and  lost  it  by  exactly  the  same  margin  in  December. He  did  not  stand  for  Parliament  again.  He  was  angry  that  Asquith  did  not  abolish  the  Lords  altogether.

In  1912  Hilaire's  The  Servile  State  was  published  which  criticised  both  capitalism  and  socialism  and  called  for  a  return  to  pre-Reformation  economics  or  paleo-corporatism. He  favoured  distributism,  dispersing  property, particularly  land,  in  small  amounts  to  the  many, a  return  to  the   early  ideas  of  Chamberlain  and  Collings

From  1914  to  1920  Hilaire  was  editor  of  Land  and  Water,  a  war  journal.

In  the  1920s  he  pursued  literary  feuds  against  H,G. Wells  and  G  Coulton. He was  a  prolific  writer  on  many  subjects. He  wrote  a  long  series  of  contentious  biographies  of  historical  figures  with  the  aim  of  showing  the  perils  of  departure  from  orthodox  Catholicism.

Hilaire  had  some  prescient  words  about  Islam  in  his  1937  book, The  Crusades : The  World's  Debate  ;

"There  is  no  reason  why  its  recent  inferiority  in  mechanical  construction, whether  military  or  civilian, should  continue  indefinitely. Even  a  slight  accession  of  material  power would  make  the  further  control  of  Islam  by  an  alien  culture  difficult. A  little  more  and  there  will  cease  that  which  our  time  has  taken  for  granted, the  physical  domination  of  Islam  by  the  disintegrated  Christendom  we  know".

Hilaire  was  also  noted  for  ant-semitic  views  on  Jewish  finance. He  was  a  strong  critic  of  Rufus  Isaacs  over  the  Marconi  affair  , using  his journal  Eye  Witness  to  keep  the  affair  in  the  public  eye    and  in  1922  his  book  The  Jews  described  their  presence  in  Christian  society  as  "a  permanent  problem  of  the  gravest  character". However  Hilaire  did  condemn  the  Nazi  brand  of  anti-semitism  in  his  1940  book  The  Catholic  and  the  War.

Hilaire  was  also  a  keen  yachtsman.

He  died in  1953 aged  82.

1580 Gordon Harvey

Constituency  : Rochdale  1906-18

Gordon  recaptured Rochdale  from  the  Tories. He's  an  MP  with  whom  I  have  a  few  personal  connections.

Gordon's  father  was  a  co-founder  of  the  textile  firm  Fothergill  and  Harvey  whose  mills  were  all  situated  in  Littleborough. He  became  a  Lancashire  county  councillor  an  was  chairman  of  its  Education  Committee  from  1902  until  his  death.. He  stood  for  Rochdale  in  1900. Despite  Gordon  being  very  opposed  to  the  Boer War  and  the  intervention  of  a  Labour  candidate , he  came  within  19  votes  of  unseating  the Tory.

Gordon  was  a  firm  pacifist  and  routinely  opposed  the  naval  estimates  in  Parliament.  He  moved  an  amendment  against  McKenna's  estimates  in  1909  but  collapsed  when  Asquith  told  the  House  that  Germany  could  now  match  the  pace  of  British  shipbuilding. Nevertheless  he told  the  Commons, "We  are  approaching  within  measurable  distance  of  the  time  when  armed  peace  will  be  as  costly  to  maintain  as  a  state  of  war". He  was  on  the  executive  of  the  Anglo-German  Friendship  Society.

 Gordon   was  president  of  the  Land  Nationalisation  Society  and  the  National  Peace  Council . He  supported  the  overturning  of  the  Taff  Vale  judgement. In  1913  he  introduced  a  Smoke  Abatement  Bill.

The  First  World  War  was  a  difficult  time  for  Gordon. He  was  strongly  opposed  to  the  war  on  principle  but  his  firm  was  making  large  profits  as  a  wartime  supplier of  khaki.. He  became  disillusioned  with  the  Liberal  leadership  and  wrote  to  Arthur  Ponsonby  of  the  "toppling  over  of  idols".  He supported  the  League  of  Nations .He  was  forced  to  stand  down  in  1918  by  throat  cancer  but  would  undoubtedly have  suffered  a  crushing  defeat  if  he  had  put  himself  forward  again.

Gordon  was  a  philanthropic employer  who  built  good  homes  for  his  workers  and  was  also  an  early  environmentalist, taking  a  lead  in  reducing  smoke  emissions  and  planting  trees. He  sponsored  the  Beautiful  Littleborough  Society, the  forerunner  of  Littleborough  Civic  Trust.

Gordon  lingered  in  his  home  on  the  shores  of  Windermere  until  1922  when  he  died  aged  63. His  nephews,  Alexander  and  Charles  inherited  the  firm  and  gave  my  mother  her  first  job .  At  the  same  time  they  employed  a  young  man  named  Cyril  Smith  and  later  sponsored  him  to  become  a  Liberal  agent. Charles  stood  for  Rochdale  in  1945  but  came  a  distant  third.

1579 Harold Cox

Constituency : Preston  1906-10

Harold  took  Preston  from  the  Tories  in  tandem  with  Labour's  John  MacPherson  who  topped  the  poll.

Harold  was  a  judge's  son. He  was  educated  at  Tonbridge  School  in  Kent  and  Cambridge. He  became  a  lecturer  on  political  economy. He  also  spent  a  year  as  an  agricultural  worker  to  experience  the  conditions. He  started  a communistic  farm  which  quickly  failed,  turning him  against  socialism  for  life.  In  1885  he went  to  India  where  he  spent  two  years  teaching  maths  before  returning  to  the  UK to  become  a  barrister. He  swiftly  decided  to  become  a  journalist  instead. He  was  Secretary  to  the  Cobden  Club  from  1899  to  1904. Herbert  Gladstone  thought  he  was  "a  bad  egg". He  warned  the  local  Liberal  Association  that  he  had  no  desire "to  become  one  of  those  walking  automata  on  two  legs, who  come  in when  the  division  bell  rings  and  vote  as  they  are  told".

Harold  was  an  ardent  Free  Trader  but  an  old  school  Manchester  Liberal. He  was  a  member  of  the  Navy  League .He  opposed  the  Liberal  reforms  on  old  age  pensions, school  meals  and  unemployment  benefit. In  his  1907  book  Socialism  in  the  House  of  Commons  he  lamented  the  withering  of  individual  responsibility. The  radical  G  P  Gooch  wrote  of  him  "While  we  saw  in  the  state  an  indispensable  instrument  for  establishing  a  minimum  standard  of  life  for  the  common  man, he  dreaded  the  slackening  of  moral  fibre  as  a  result  of   getting  "something  for  nothing" On  pensions,  he  pointed  out  that  a  man  "might  have  spent  his  life  not  in  helping  his  country but  in  injuring  his  country  by  his  own  vicious  conduct : he  might  have  been  an  idle  drunken  blackguard , yet  when  he  reached  the  age  of  65, he  was  entitled  to  draw  five  shillings  a  week  out  of  the  pockets  of  hard-working, sober  and  thrifty  men". Only  one  other  Liberal  voted  with  him  against  the  Bill.

Harold  was  against  extending  the  franchise  to  the  residuum " A  man  has  no  natural  right  to  govern  his  neighbours  or  to  vote  away  public  funds  to  which  he  does  not  contribute....The  cause  of  public  extravagance  is  the  adoption  by  all  political  parties  of  a  policy  of  spending  money to  provide  the  individual  with  things  which  he  should  buy  for  himself". He  supported  birth  control.

Harold  was  part  of  the  Liberal "cave"  opposing  the  land  clauses  of  the  People's  Budget. The  Labour  Leader  described  him  as  a  "nineteenth  century  individualist  and  an  early  Victorian  one  at  that.. No  man in  the  House  of  Commons  has  been  a  more  inveterate  opponent  of  advanced  measures".

By  the  January  1910  election  the  local  Liberals  had  repudiated  Harold  and  he  stood  as  an  independent  Liberal  though  he  had  strong  support  from  the  Unionist  Free  Traders. He  came  fifth  as  the  Tories  re-took  both  seats.

Harold  accepted  nomination  from  the  Conservatives  as  an  alderman  for  London  County  Council   However  he  then  stood  in  the  Cambridge  University  by-election  of  1911  as  a  Free  Trader. He  did  quite  well  in  the  absence  of  an  official  Liberal  candidate  but  failed  to  win  the  seat.

In  1912  Harold  became  editor  of  the  Edinburgh  Review.

Philip  Snowden  described  him   as  " a  very  polished  speaker  and  stated  the  case  with  which  he  was  dealing  with  great  intellectual  force".

He  died  of  pneumonia  in  1936  aged  76.

1578 Arthur Haworth

Constituency : Manchester  South  1906-12

Arthur  took  Manchester  South  after  the  Liberal  Unionist  William  Peel  stood  down  and  the  seat  was  defended  by  the  Conservatives.

Arthur  was  from  Altrincham. He  was  educated  at  Rugby  and  went  into  business  as  a  yarn  merchant. He  became  a director  of  Manchester  Chamber  of  Commerce  in  1902  and  chairman  in  1909. He  was  a  Congregationalist.

Arthur  was  opposed to  decimalisation.

Arthur  was  unopposed  in  December  1910  after  an  error  by  the  Conservative  agent.

Arthur  was  created  a  baronet  in  1911.

Arthur was made  a  whip  in  1912  but  lost  his  seat  in  the  ensuing  by-election. The  main  issues  in  the campaign  were  national  insurance, female  suffrage and  Home  Rule.

Arthur  supported  Norman  Angell's  Neutrality  League  in  1914.

Arthur  stood  in  Manchester  Exchange  in 1918  but  was  crushed  by  the  couponed  Conservative.

Arthur  was  active  in  the  League  of  Nations  Union.

He  died  in  1944  aged  79.

1577 Thomas Horridge

Constituency  : Manchester  East  1906-18

Thomas's   was  the  most  celebrated  victory  of  1906  when  he  took  out  the  Tory  leader  Arthur  Balfour. He  campaigned  hard  on  the  issue  of  the  Chinese  coolies.

Thomas  was  a  chemist's  son  from  Bolton. He  was  educated  in  London  and  became  a  barrister.

Thomas  gave  a  lukewarm  endorsement  of  the  government's  Plural  Voting  Bill  in  1906.

Thomas  stood  down  in  1910  to  resume  his  legal  career. He  became  a  judge  soon  afterwards.

Thomas   presided  over  the  jailing  of  the  printers  and  publishers  of  The  Syndicalist  in  1912  and  was  involved  in  the  trial  of  Roger  Casement.

Despite  his  earlier  concern  for  the  coolies, Thomas  was  guilty  of  racial  mockery  directed  at   a  Chinese  man  who  came  before  him  in  1920  looking  for  a  divorce  from  his  English  wife ( although  he did  get  it )

He  retired  in  1937  and  died  the  following  year  aged  80.

1576 William Brocklehurst

Constituency : Macclesfield  1906-18

William  took  Macclesfield  from  the Tories.

William  was  the  son  of  the  former  Macclesfield  MP  of  the  same  name. He  was  educated  at  Cheltenham  College  and Oxford. He  was  a  senior  partner  in  the  family's  silk  manufacturing  business  and  a  member  of  Cheshire  County  Council.

William  never  spoke  in  the  Commons.

In  the  First  World  War  William  loaned  a  property  to  the  Red  Cross  for  use  as  a  hospital  for  wounded  soldiers  and  sailors.

William  stood  down  in  1918.

He  died  in  1929  aged  78.

1575 Richard Cherry

Constituency : Liverpool  Exchange 1906-10

Richard  narrowly  unseated  the  Liberal  Unionist,  Charles  McArthur.

Richard  was  a  solicitor's  son  from  Waterford. He  was  educated  at  Trinity  College, Dublin. He  became  a  professor  of  Criminal  and  Constitutional  Law  there  and  published  a  couple  of  books  on  criminal  law.  He  was  also  an  expert  on  land  law .He  was  strongly  opposed  to  the  Boer  War  and  a  letter  was  issued  against  him  as  a  Boer  partisan  when  he  stood  in  1900.. Campbell-Bannerman  appointed  him  Attorney-General  for  Ireland  in  1905.

Richard   was  elevated  to  the  Bench  at  the  end  of  1909  and  so  did  not  defend his  seat  in  January  1910.

Richard  was  criticised  by  the  writer  Maurie  Healy " his  knowledge  of  his  fellow  men  was  not  extensive, and  erred  towards  charity".

In  1914  Richard  was  promoted  to  Lord  Justice  for  Ireland. He  lost  the  stomach  for  the  job  after  the  Ester  Rising  and  was  in  any  case  suffering  from  what  was  diagnosed  as  "slow  paralysis ", possibly  Parkinson's  Disease.

One  of  Richard's  hobbies  was  bell  ringing.

He  died  in  1923  aged  63.