Mitchell Henry (1826 – 22 November 1910) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

financier, politician and

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

(MP) in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

of the

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was a sovereign state in the British Isles that existed between 1801 and 1922, when it included all of Ireland. It was established by the Acts of Union 1800, which merged the Kingdom of Grea ...

. He was MP for County Galway from 1871 to 1885, and for

Glasgow Blackfriars and Hutchesontown Glasgow Blackfriars and Hutchesontown, representing parts of the city of Glasgow, Scotland, was a burgh constituency represented in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1885 U ...

from 1885 to 1886.

Biography

Mitchell Henry was the second son of Alexander Henry (1784–1862) of Woodlands, near

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, a very affluent cotton merchant, founder of ''A & S Henry & Co Ltd'' and

for

South Lancashire South Lancashire is a geographical county area, used to indicate the southern part of the historic county of Lancashire, today without any administrative purpose. The county region has no exact boundaries but generally includes areas that form t ...

from 1847 to 1852, who was married to Elizabeth, daughter of George Brush of Willowbrook,

Killinchy Killinchy () is a townland and small village in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is two miles inland from the western shores of Strangford Lough in the Borough of Ards and North Down. It is situated in the townland of the same name, the civil p ...

, County Down, and a supporter of the

Anti-Corn Law League The Anti-Corn Law League was a successful political movement in Great Britain aimed at the abolition of the unpopular Corn Laws, which protected landowners’ interests by levying taxes on imported wheat, thus raising the price of bread at a tim ...

. Mitchell Henry was educated in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

and at

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

where he read for a degree in medicine, eventually becoming a Fellow of the

Royal College of Surgeons The Royal College of Surgeons is an ancient college (a form of corporation) established in England to regulate the activity of surgeons. Derivative organisations survive in many present and former members of the Commonwealth. These organisations a ...

. He became a senior consultant at the

Middlesex Hospital Middlesex Hospital was a teaching hospital located in the Fitzrovia area of London, England. First opened as the Middlesex Infirmary in 1745 on Windmill Street, it was moved in 1757 to Mortimer Street where it remained until it was finally clos ...

in London by the time he was 30. After the death of his father in 1862, Mitchell Henry abandoned his career in medicine and returned to his native Manchester to run the family business. He soon became involved in politics and contested Woodstock for the Liberals in 1865, and stood in the 1867 Manchester by-election, and the 1868 general election, as a moderate Liberal, but was well-beaten in both contests. As part of his candidature in 1868 Henry started up the ''

Manchester Evening News The ''Manchester Evening News'' (''MEN'') is a regional daily newspaper covering Greater Manchester in North West England, founded in 1868. It is published Monday–Saturday; a Sunday edition, the ''MEN on Sunday'', was launched in February 20 ...

'', though it passed out of his hands at the end of the election. He was particularly interested in the cause for a better health provision for the poor. In 1852, he married Margaret Vaughan (d. 1875) of Quilly House, County Down. He built Kylemore Castle in

Connemara Connemara (; )( ga, Conamara ) is a region on the Atlantic coast of western County Galway, in the west of Ireland. The area has a strong association with traditional Irish culture and contains much of the Connacht Irish-speaking Gaeltacht, ...

Co. Galway between 1863 and 1868. He had nine children, five daughters and four sons. The youngest son Lorenzo Mitchell-Henry became an international pigeon shot and invented the Henrite shot-gun cartridge. He later became a record setting tunny fisherman. In 1875, his wife Margaret died, aged 45, of a fever contracted in Egypt. After this Mitchell did not spend so much time at Kylemore, although he kept it going. However, he built a beautiful memorial church a short distance from the house on the shore of the lake. Margaret was finally laid to rest nearby in a mausoleum, where in due course he joined her. The church is a miniature replica of a gothic cathedral, the inside features coloured marbles from each of the 4 provinces of Ireland. In an 1871 by-election he was returned MP for Galway County, and supported

Home Rule Home rule is government of a colony, dependent country, or region by its own citizens. It is thus the power of a part (administrative division) of a state or an external dependent country to exercise such of the state's powers of governance wit ...

for

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. Having broken with the

Irish Parliamentary Party The Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP; commonly called the Irish Party or the Home Rule Party) was formed in 1874 by Isaac Butt, the leader of the Nationalist Party, replacing the Home Rule League, as official parliamentary party for Irish nation ...

in 1884, in 1885 he was elected Liberal MP for the Blackfriars Division of Glasgow, but defeat the following year when standing as a

Liberal Unionist The Liberal Unionist Party was a British political party that was formed in 1886 by a faction that broke away from the Liberal Party. Led by Lord Hartington (later the Duke of Devonshire) and Joseph Chamberlain, the party established a politic ...

spelt the end of his parliamentary career. He died in November 1910, at his home in Leamington in

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Av ...

External links

About Mitchell Henry on the Homepage of Kylemore Abbey & Victorian Walled Gardens, Connemara, County Galway, Ireland

Homepage of the Mitchell Henry family
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Henry, Mitchell 1826 births 1910 deaths Alumni of University College London Academics of University College London 19th-century English medical doctors English male journalists Home Rule League MPs Irish Parliamentary Party MPs Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Galway constituencies (1801–1922) UK MPs 1868–1874 UK MPs 1874–1880 UK MPs 1880–1885 UK MPs 1885–1886 Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Glasgow constituencies English newspaper editors Politicians from Manchester Politicians from County Galway Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons Scottish Liberal Party MPs Liberal Unionist Party MPs for Scottish constituencies

Biography

Further reading

External links