Henry William Schneider (1817 – 1887) was a British

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....

 industrialist, and politician

Politician

A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...

, who played a leading role in the development of the new town of Barrow-in-Furness

Barrow-in-Furness

Barrow-in-Furness is an industrial town and seaport which forms about half the territory of the wider Borough of Barrow-in-Furness in the county of Cumbria, England. It lies north of Liverpool, northwest of Manchester and southwest from the county town of Carlisle...

.

Brief biography

Henry Schneider arrived in Barrow-in-Furness in 1839 as a speculator and dealer in iron. He took over the Whiteriggs iron mine and other ore deposits. His breakthrough in Furness

Furness

Furness is a peninsula in south Cumbria, England. At its widest extent, it is considered to cover the whole of North Lonsdale, that part of the Lonsdale hundred that is an exclave of the historic county of Lancashire, lying to the north of Morecambe Bay....

 was the discovery of the massive Burlington iron ore mine near Askam in 1851.

He and other investors including James Ramsden founded the Furness Railway

Furness Railway

The Furness Railway was a railway company operating in the Furness area of Lancashire in North West England.-History:The company was established on May 23, 1844 when the Furness Railway Act was passed by Parliament...

, the first section of which opened in 1846.
He decided to build furnaces in the town, in partnership with John Hannay. Schneider's iron company later merged with one founded by Ramsden to form the Barrow Haematite Iron and Steel Company and the two magnates oversaw the construction in 1859 of what was then the largest Bessemer process

Bessemer process

The Bessemer process was the first inexpensive industrial process for the mass-production of steel from molten pig iron. The process is named after its inventor, Henry Bessemer, who took out a patent on the process in 1855. The process was independently discovered in 1851 by William Kelly...

 steelworks in the world, employing more than 5,000 workers.

He was elected MP for Norwich

Norwich

Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...

 from March 27, 1857 to July 31, 1859 and was later MP for Lancaster

Lancaster, Lancashire

Lancaster is the county town of Lancashire, England. It is situated on the River Lune and has a population of 45,952. Lancaster is a constituent settlement of the wider City of Lancaster, local government district which has a population of 133,914 and encompasses several outlying towns, including...

 from February 20, 1865 to December 31, 1866, but was disqualified when it was found that he had bribed voters.

While chairman of the Barrow Steelworks he lived at Belsfield House on the shore of Windermere

Windermere

Windermere is the largest natural lake of England. It is also a name used in a number of places, including:-Australia:* Lake Windermere , a reservoir, Australian Capital Territory * Lake Windermere...

. Every morning he left home and travelled on his steam yacht SL Esperance, on which he had breakfast, across the lake to Lakeside

Lakeside, Cumbria

Lakeside is a small settlement at the south end of Windermere, England. Now in the English county of Cumbria, before county reorganisation of 1974 it was in Lancashire, as part of the region known as Furness...

. From there he would travel by train in his private carriage to his office in Barrow. The Esperance is preserved in the Windermere Steamboat Museum

Windermere Steamboat Museum

The Windermere Steamboat Museum was formed by the boat collector G. H. Pattinson, and was located on the former Sand and Gravel Wharf between Bowness-on-Windermere and the town of Windermere, on the eastern shore of Windermere in Cumbria, England. In 2007, the museum was taken over by the Lakeland...

. It became the model for Captain Flint's houseboat in Arthur Ransome

Arthur Ransome

Arthur Michell Ransome was an English author and journalist, best known for writing the Swallows and Amazons series of children's books. These tell of school-holiday adventures of children, mostly in the Lake District and the Norfolk Broads. Many of the books involve sailing; other common subjects...

's Swallows and Amazons

Swallows and Amazons

Swallows and Amazons is the first book in the Swallows and Amazons series by Arthur Ransome; it was first published in 1930, with the action taking place in the summer of 1929 in the Lake District...

.

He had other homes in the area at Roa Island

Roa Island

Roa Island lies just over half a mile south of the village of Rampside at the southernmost point of the Furness Peninsula in Cumbria, though formerly in the area of Lancashire north of the sands. It is located at . It is one of the Islands of Furness in northern England. It has an area of about...

, next to the lifeboat station, later used as a fisheries centre and at Oak Lea, near Sowerby Woods, which burnt down in mysterious circumstances in 1903.

A statue of Schneider, erected in 1891, stands on Schneider Square, Barrow-in-Furness near the town hall.