Sir Arthur Henry Crosfield, 1st Baronet (5 April 1865 – 22 September 1938) was a Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) for

Warrington Warrington () is an industrial town in the Borough of Warrington, borough of the same name in Cheshire, England. The town sits on the banks of the River Mersey and was Historic counties of England, historically part of Lancashire. It is east o ...

from 1906 to December 1910.

Background

In 1907 he married Domini Elliadi who was also active in Liberal politics.

Political career

He was elected during the 1906 Liberal landslide gaining Warrington from the Conservative Robert Pierpont. He was re-elected in January 1910 but defeated by the Conservative Harold Smith in December 1910. He was created a

baronet A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...

, of

Highgate Highgate is a suburban area of N postcode area, north London in the London Borough of Camden, London Boroughs of Camden, London Borough of Islington, Islington and London Borough of Haringey, Haringey. The area is at the north-eastern corner ...

in the

County of Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the Thames in the south, the Lea to the east and the Colne to the west. A line of hi ...

, on 24 June 1915. He was interested in the Balkans, and wrote ''The Settlement of the Near East'', published in 1922.

Business career

From his parents, he inherited the business of

Joseph Crosfield and Sons Joseph Crosfield (5 October 1792 – 16 February 1844) was a businessman who established a soap and chemical manufacturing business in Warrington, which was in the historic county of Lancashire and is now in the ceremonial county of Cheshire. T ...

, soap and candle manufacturers. He sold the company in 1911, bought Parkfield, an elegant 18th-century house in

, north London, on the proceeds and rebuilt and enlarged it over the next seven years as

Witanhurst Witanhurst is a large Listed building#England and Wales, Grade II* listed 1930s Georgian Revival mansion on in Highgate, North London. It has had several prominent owners since being rebuilt by the soap magnate and politician Sir Arthur Crosfie ...

("Parliament on the Hill"), being the largest house in London after

Buckingham Palace Buckingham Palace () is a royal official residence, residence in London, and the administrative headquarters of the monarch of the United Kingdom. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is often at the centre of state occasions and r ...

. He was a keen

golfer Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit a ball into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

and won many championships, including the French Open Amateur Championship. Crosfield was also Chairman of the

National Playing Fields Association Fields in Trust is a British charity set up in 1925 as the National Playing Fields Association (NPFA), by Brigadier-General Reginald Kentish and the Duke of York, later King George VI, who was the first president, which protects parks and green s ...

, for which he was appointed a

Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(GBE) in 1929. He served as a School Governor for

Highgate School Highgate School, formally Sir Roger Cholmeley's School at Highgate, is a co-educational, fee-charging, private day school, founded in 1565 in Highgate, London, England. It educates over 1,400 pupils in three sections – Highgate Pre-Preparato ...

from 1929 to 1930. Crosfield lost a fortune in a failed Greek mining venture in the mid-1930s, and was killed shortly thereafter when he fell out of the window of a railway sleeper car near Toulon in southern France.

References

Politics of Warrington UK MPs 1906–1910 Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies 1938 deaths 1865 births Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire Amateur golfers {{England-Liberal-UK-MP-stub