Saturday, 26 August 2017

1658 William Pearce



Constituency : Limehouse  1906-22

William  took  Limehouse  from  the  Tories  at  the second  attempt.

William  was  the  son  of  a  chemical  manufacturer. He  was  educated at  scientific  colleges. He  became  a  Progressive  councillor  on  the  LCC.

William  scored  exactly  the  same  majority - 431  votes - in  both 1910  elections.

William  was  knighted  in  1915. He  served on  the  Committee  for  After-War  Trade  which  considered  decimalisation  and  metrification. He  became  the  first  Treasurer of  the  Association  of  British  Chemical  Manufacturers  established  in  1916  to  match  a  similar  German  body.

William  received  the  coupon  in  1918  and  comfortably  held  off  Labour  and  National Party  challengers.

In  1919, William  chaired a  select  committee  on  war  profits  which  after  much  discussion  recommended  a  modest  levy. The  Cabinet decided not  to  implement  the  recommendations.

William  was  defeated  by  Labour's  Clement  Attlee  in  1922.

He  died  in  1932  aged  79.


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