Henry Wilson (British politician)
Encyclopedia
Henry Joseph Wilson was a British
farmer
, industrialist and Liberal Party
politician.
, Nottinghamshire
, the son of William Wilson who had also lived at Torquay
and Mansfield
. The Wilson family held strong Nonconformist and Reform
sympathies. Henry was educated at the West of England Dissenters’ Proprietary School
, Taunton
and then at University College London. In 1859, he married Charlotte, daughter of Charles Cowan
the MP, for Edinburgh
. They had three sons and two daughters. One of his sons, Cecil Henry Wilson
, was later a Labour Party
politician and sat as MP for the constituency of Sheffield Attercliffe.
to manage the family firm, the Sheffield Smelting
Company of which he also became a director
.
dedication to public service and devotion to civic duty. His causes included the temperance movement, opposition to the state regulation of vice
, non-sectarian
education, Disestablishment of the Anglican Church, Irish Home Rule
, internationalism
, Anti-imperialism
and the destruction of the Opium trade.
Wilson’s radicalism led him away from the traditional Gladstonian Liberalism
of the age, as represented by the dominant group within the party in Sheffield. He was particularly repelled by some of the provisions of the 1870 Education Act
such as those which involved payment for religious teaching out of public funds. Nonconformists saw the Act as a violation of religious liberty in education.
. Impressed with the radical tone he was hearing from the newly elected Mayor
of Birmingham
Joseph Chamberlain
, Wilson invited Chamberlain to try his luck as a candidate in Sheffield. But the election was a shambles from a Liberal perspective as four men were nominated for the two seats to be contested. Chamberlain came third after a bitter campaign in which dead cats were thrown at him on the hustings.
from the leadership of the Party in 1875. In that year Wilson became Secretary of the Sheffield Liberal Association, a new body formed to make Sheffield secure against possible Unionist
intervention and to try and give the radical activists a better chance of success in electing someone like Chamberlain in the future. From this more mainstream base, Wilson was selected to stand as Liberal candidate for Holmfirth
in West Yorkshire
at the 1885 general election
. Amongst his rivals for the nomination was former Liberal MP Frederick Beaumont . He won the Holmfirth seat with 6% of the poll and then held it against all-comers at each subsequent election until he resigned in 1912. His successor at the subsequent by-election
was Sydney Arnold
.
from 1872 to 1885 and of the British Continental and General Federation for the Abolition of Government Regulation of Prostitution, from 1875. He was a member of the Royal Commission on Opium
in India from 1893–95, Treasurer of the National Vigilance Association in the 1900s, a Justice of the Peace
from 1881, and was for fifteen years a member of the Sheffield School Board. He served on the Sheffield Nonconformist Committee, set up to work for the amendment of the Education Act of 1870, from 1872 to the Committee's effective dissolution in 1877.
In 1910 he gave £10,000 towards the purchase of a public garden in the east end of Sheffield.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
farmer
Farmer
A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, who raises living organisms for food or raw materials, generally including livestock husbandry and growing crops, such as produce and grain...
, industrialist and Liberal Party
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
politician.
Family and education
Henry Joseph Wilson was born at Old RadfordRadford
-Places:England* Radford, Coventry* Radford, Nottingham* Radford, Oxfordshire* Radford, Somerset* Radford Semele, WarwickshireAustralia* Radford College, CanberraUSA* Radford, Virginia* Radford University, Virginia...
, Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire is a county in the East Midlands of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west...
, the son of William Wilson who had also lived at Torquay
Torquay
Torquay is a town in the unitary authority area of Torbay and ceremonial county of Devon, England. It lies south of Exeter along the A380 on the north of Torbay, north-east of Plymouth and adjoins the neighbouring town of Paignton on the west of the bay. Torquay’s population of 63,998 during the...
and Mansfield
Mansfield
Mansfield is a town in Nottinghamshire, England. It is the main town in the Mansfield local government district. Mansfield is a part of the Mansfield Urban Area....
. The Wilson family held strong Nonconformist and Reform
Radicals (UK)
The Radicals were a parliamentary political grouping in the United Kingdom in the early to mid 19th century, who drew on earlier ideas of radicalism and helped to transform the Whigs into the Liberal Party.-Background:...
sympathies. Henry was educated at the West of England Dissenters’ Proprietary School
Taunton School
Taunton School is a co-educational independent school in the county town of Taunton in Somerset in South West England. It serves boarding and day-school pupils from the ages of 13 to 18....
, Taunton
Taunton
Taunton is the county town of Somerset, England. The town, including its suburbs, had an estimated population of 61,400 in 2001. It is the largest town in the shire county of Somerset....
and then at University College London. In 1859, he married Charlotte, daughter of Charles Cowan
Charles Cowan
Charles Cowan was a Scottish politician and paper-maker.He was the son of Alexander Cowan, and followed his father into the paper-making industry; he would later write the article on this for the Encyclopaedia Britannica...
the MP, for Edinburgh
Edinburgh (UK Parliament constituency)
Edinburgh was a burgh constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1708 to 1801 and of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 until 1885. Originally a single member constituency, representation was increased to two members in 1832...
. They had three sons and two daughters. One of his sons, Cecil Henry Wilson
Cecil Henry Wilson
Cecil Henry Wilson was a British pacifist Labour Party Member of Parliament .Born in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, the son of Liberal Party Member of Parliament for Holmfirth, Henry Wilson, Wilson attended Wesley College, Sheffield and the Victoria University of Manchester.In 1903 Wilson was elected...
, was later a Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
politician and sat as MP for the constituency of Sheffield Attercliffe.
Career
Wilson began working life as a farmer near Mansfield and in 1867, after fourteen years as tenant of Newlands Farm, he went to SheffieldSheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
to manage the family firm, the Sheffield Smelting
Smelting
Smelting is a form of extractive metallurgy; its main use is to produce a metal from its ore. This includes iron extraction from iron ore, and copper extraction and other base metals from their ores...
Company of which he also became a director
Board of directors
A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...
.
Radical causes
Wilson’s political interests were born of the radical and dissenting tradition he inherited from his father and the Wilson family’s VictorianVictorian morality
Victorian morality is a distillation of the moral views of people living at the time of Queen Victoria's reign and of the moral climate of the United Kingdom throughout the 19th century in general, which contrasted greatly with the morality of the previous Georgian period...
dedication to public service and devotion to civic duty. His causes included the temperance movement, opposition to the state regulation of vice
Vice
Vice is a practice or a behavior or habit considered immoral, depraved, or degrading in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a defect, an infirmity, or merely a bad habit. Synonyms for vice include fault, depravity, sin, iniquity, wickedness, and corruption...
, non-sectarian
Nonsectarian
Nonsectarian, in its most literal sense, refers to a lack of sectarianism. The term is also more narrowly used to describe secular private educational institutions or other organizations either not affiliated with or not restricted to a particular religious denomination though the organization...
education, Disestablishment of the Anglican Church, Irish Home Rule
Irish Home Rule Movement
The Irish Home Rule Movement articulated a longstanding Irish desire for the repeal of the Act of Union of 1800 by a demand for self-government within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The movement drew upon a legacy of patriotic thought that dated back at least to the late 17th...
, internationalism
Internationalism (politics)
Internationalism is a political movement which advocates a greater economic and political cooperation among nations for the theoretical benefit of all...
, Anti-imperialism
Anti-imperialism
Anti-imperialism, strictly speaking, is a term that may be applied to a movement opposed to any form of colonialism or imperialism. Anti-imperialism includes opposition to wars of conquest, particularly of non-contiguous territory or people with a different language or culture; it also includes...
and the destruction of the Opium trade.
Wilson’s radicalism led him away from the traditional Gladstonian Liberalism
Gladstonian Liberalism
Gladstonian Liberalism is a political doctrine named after the British Victorian Prime Minister and leader of the Liberal Party, William Ewart Gladstone. Gladstonian Liberalism consisted of limited government expenditure and low taxation whilst making sure government had balanced budgets...
of the age, as represented by the dominant group within the party in Sheffield. He was particularly repelled by some of the provisions of the 1870 Education Act
Elementary Education Act 1870
The Elementary Education Act 1870, commonly known as Forster's Education Act, set the framework for schooling of all children between ages 5 and 12 in England and Wales...
such as those which involved payment for religious teaching out of public funds. Nonconformists saw the Act as a violation of religious liberty in education.
Sheffield Reform Association
In March 1873, Wilson and his supporters formed a rival political organisation, the Sheffield Reform Association with the aim of promoting a more radical Liberal voice in the city and in the hope of getting a candidate sympathetic to these progressive causes elected to Parliament. This campaign seemed to about the bear fruit just before the 1874 general electionUnited Kingdom general election, 1874
-Seats summary:-References:* F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987* British Electoral Facts 1832-1999, compiled and edited by Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher *...
. Impressed with the radical tone he was hearing from the newly elected Mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
of Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
Joseph Chamberlain
Joseph Chamberlain
Joseph Chamberlain was an influential British politician and statesman. Unlike most major politicians of the time, he was a self-made businessman and had not attended Oxford or Cambridge University....
, Wilson invited Chamberlain to try his luck as a candidate in Sheffield. But the election was a shambles from a Liberal perspective as four men were nominated for the two seats to be contested. Chamberlain came third after a bitter campaign in which dead cats were thrown at him on the hustings.
Liberal MP
Perhaps the divisions of 1874 opened Wilson’s eyes to the need for Liberal unity, perhaps made easier by the resignation of Mr GladstoneWilliam Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone FRS FSS was a British Liberal statesman. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served as Prime Minister four separate times , more than any other person. Gladstone was also Britain's oldest Prime Minister, 84 years old when he resigned for the last time...
from the leadership of the Party in 1875. In that year Wilson became Secretary of the Sheffield Liberal Association, a new body formed to make Sheffield secure against possible Unionist
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
intervention and to try and give the radical activists a better chance of success in electing someone like Chamberlain in the future. From this more mainstream base, Wilson was selected to stand as Liberal candidate for Holmfirth
Holmfirth (UK Parliament constituency)
Holmfirth was a parliamentary constituency centred on the town of Holmfirth in the West Riding of Yorkshire. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, MP elected by the first past the post system....
in West Yorkshire
West Riding of Yorkshire
The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of the three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county, County of York, West Riding , was based closely on the historic boundaries...
at the 1885 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1885
-Seats summary:-See also:*List of MPs elected in the United Kingdom general election, 1885*Parliamentary Franchise in the United Kingdom 1885–1918*Representation of the People Act 1884*Redistribution of Seats Act 1885-References:...
. Amongst his rivals for the nomination was former Liberal MP Frederick Beaumont . He won the Holmfirth seat with 6% of the poll and then held it against all-comers at each subsequent election until he resigned in 1912. His successor at the subsequent by-election
By-election
A by-election is an election held to fill a political office that has become vacant between regularly scheduled elections....
was Sydney Arnold
Sydney Arnold, 1st Baron Arnold
Sydney Arnold, 1st Baron Arnold was a British Liberal Party politician who later joined the Labour Party and served as a government minister....
.
Offices and appointments
Wilson held offices in many organisations connected with his local and national political activities. He was Secretary of the Northern Counties Electoral League for the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases ActsContagious Diseases Acts
The Contagious Diseases Acts were originally passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom in 1864, with further alterations and editions made to it in 1866 and 1869. In 1862, a committee was established to inquire into venereal disease in the armed forces; on its recommendation the first...
from 1872 to 1885 and of the British Continental and General Federation for the Abolition of Government Regulation of Prostitution, from 1875. He was a member of the Royal Commission on Opium
Royal Commission on Opium
The Royal Opium Commission of 1895 was a commission of the British Government set up to investigate the Anglo-Asian opium trade.-History:Throughout the 19th century opium sent to China was one of British India's most valuable exports...
in India from 1893–95, Treasurer of the National Vigilance Association in the 1900s, a Justice of the Peace
Justice of the Peace
A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...
from 1881, and was for fifteen years a member of the Sheffield School Board. He served on the Sheffield Nonconformist Committee, set up to work for the amendment of the Education Act of 1870, from 1872 to the Committee's effective dissolution in 1877.
In 1910 he gave £10,000 towards the purchase of a public garden in the east end of Sheffield.
External links
- Papers of Henry Joseph Wilson at the Women's Library, London
- Henry Joseph Wilson at the National Register of Archives