William Harris (Birmingham Liberal)
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

William Harris (1826 – 25 March 1911) was a Liberal politician and strategist in
Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
, England, in an era of dramatic municipal reform. On his death, he was described by one obituary-writer as "one of the founders of modern Birmingham". J. L. Garvin called him "the
Abbé Sieyès ''Abbé'' (from Latin , in turn from Greek , , from Aramaic ''abba'', a title of honour, literally meaning "the father, my father", emphatic state of ''abh'', "father") is the French word for an abbot. It is also the title used for lower-ranki ...
of Birmingham" (in allusion to one of the chief political theorists of the French Revolutionary era); and
Asa Briggs Asa Briggs, Baron Briggs (7 May 1921 – 15 March 2016) was an English historian. He was a leading specialist on the Victorian era, and the foremost historian of broadcasting in Britain. Briggs achieved international recognition during his lon ...
"a most active and intelligent wire-puller behind the scenes". He was dubbed the "father of the
Caucus A caucus is a group or meeting of supporters or members of a specific political party or movement. The exact definition varies between different countries and political cultures. The term originated in the United States, where it can refer to ...
", the highly organised and controversial Liberal party machine that had its origins in Birmingham, but was afterwards introduced at national level to the National Liberal Federation. He served as the first Chairman of the National Liberal Federation from 1877 to 1882. By profession he was an architect and surveyor; and he was also a prolific journalist and author.


Early life

William Harris was born in 1826 in Cheadle, Staffordshire, the son of Joseph Harris and his wife Elizabeth, Swindell. His parents' liaison had met with the disapproval of their families, and they had
eloped Elopement is a marriage which is conducted in a sudden and secretive fashion, sometimes involving a hurried flight away from one's place of residence together with one's beloved with the intention of getting married without parental approval. A ...
together in 1822, to be married at
Gretna Green Gretna Green is a parish in the southern Subdivisions of Scotland, council area of Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, close to the town of Gretna, Scotland, Gretna, on the Scottish side of the English-Scottish border. It is accessed from the A74( ...
. William moved to Birmingham when young, and was educated at Rose Hill School, Handsworth.


Architectural career

Harris was articled to a Birmingham architect, Isaac Newey, at the age of 15. On completion of his articles in 1847, he established his own architectural practice. He was the first architect in Birmingham to practise as a
quantity surveyor In the construction industry, a quantity surveyor (QS) is a professional with expert knowledge of construction costs and contracting. Qualified professional quantity surveyors can be known as Chartered Surveyors (Members and Fellows of RICS) i ...
, and came to specialise in this branch of the profession.Anon. 1911, pp. 62–3. In the late 1850s, he entered into a professional partnership with John Henry Chamberlain: it was short-lived, but the two remained friends, and in later life Harris would marry (as his second wife) Chamberlain's widow. In 1876 he began a partnership with Henry Martin, and in 1879 these two were joined by Harris's son, Arnold Elsmere Harris (1854–1929), the firm subsequently practising as Harris, Martin and Harris.Anon. 1911, p. 63. Notable commissions included: in 1878–79, 24 Priory Road,
Edgbaston Edgbaston () is a suburb of Birmingham, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It lies immediately south-west of Birmingham city centre, and was historically in Warwickshire. The Ward (electoral subdivision), wards of Edgbaston and Nort ...
, a house for J. T. Bunce; in 1888, the Rolfe Street public baths,
Smethwick Smethwick () is an industrial town in the Sandwell district, in the county of the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It lies west of Birmingham city centre. Historically it was in Staffordshire and then Worcestershire before bei ...
, now re-erected at the
Black Country Living Museum The Black Country Living Museum (formerly the Black Country Museum) is an open-air museum of rebuilt historic buildings in Dudley, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is located in the centre of the Black Country, west of Birming ...
; in 1881–84, an extension to the headquarters building of the Birmingham Banking Company in Bennetts Hill, Birmingham; and, for the same company in 1883, the "Old Bank" (now a branch of
HSBC HSBC Holdings plc ( zh, t_hk=滙豐; initialism from its founding member The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation) is a British universal bank and financial services group headquartered in London, England, with historical and business li ...
) in
Stratford-upon-Avon Stratford-upon-Avon ( ), commonly known as Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon (district), Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands region of Engl ...
, which was decorated with 15 terracotta panels of
Shakespearean William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
scenes by Samuel Barfield (1830–1887) of Leicester. The Old Bank is described by Chris Pickford for the
Pevsner Architectural Guides The ''Pevsner Architectural Guides'' are four series of guide books to the architecture of the British Isles. ''The Buildings of England'' series was begun in 1945 by the art historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, with its forty-six original volumes pu ...
as "Stratford's best Victorian building". Martin left the partnership in 1889, and William Harris retired in 1895. Combining his professional expertise with his enthusiasm for municipal reform, Harris served from 1877 to 1908 as clerk to the Birmingham, Tame and Rea District Drainage Board, at a time of major investment and improvement in the infrastructure of drainage and sewage disposal in Birmingham. He was a founder-member of the Birmingham Architectural Society in 1850, and was afterwards active in its affairs. File:24 Priory Rd 1.jpg, 24 Priory Road,
Edgbaston Edgbaston () is a suburb of Birmingham, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It lies immediately south-west of Birmingham city centre, and was historically in Warwickshire. The Ward (electoral subdivision), wards of Edgbaston and Nort ...
, built 1878–79 File:Birm Banking Co extension.jpg, Extension to the Birmingham Banking Company building, Bennetts Hill, Birmingham, built 1881–84 File:Old Bank Stratford.jpg, The "Old Bank",
Stratford-upon-Avon Stratford-upon-Avon ( ), commonly known as Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon (district), Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands region of Engl ...
, built 1883 File:Rolfe St baths BCLM 1.jpg, Rolfe Street public baths,
Smethwick Smethwick () is an industrial town in the Sandwell district, in the county of the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It lies west of Birmingham city centre. Historically it was in Staffordshire and then Worcestershire before bei ...
, built 1888: now re-erected at the
Black Country Living Museum The Black Country Living Museum (formerly the Black Country Museum) is an open-air museum of rebuilt historic buildings in Dudley, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is located in the centre of the Black Country, west of Birming ...


Politics

As a young man, Harris was greatly impressed by the charismatic nonconformist minister, George Dawson, who preached the doctrine of social improvement and enlightened municipal reform subsequently known as the " Civic Gospel". He became a founder-member of Dawson's non-denominational chapel, the Church of the Saviour, in 1847, where fellow-members included George Dixon, J. T. Bunce, J. A. Langford, Robert Martineau, Samuel Timmins, A. Follett Osler, and
Joseph Chamberlain Joseph Chamberlain (8 July 1836 – 2 July 1914) was a British statesman who was first a radical Liberal Party (UK), Liberal, then a Liberal Unionist after opposing home rule for Ireland, and eventually was a leading New Imperialism, imperial ...
. With many of these same individuals, he honed his political and reformist ideas at meetings of the Birmingham and Edgbaston Debating Society, of which he served as President in 1864–5.Anon. 1911, p. 69. He spoke publicly in support of
Lajos Kossuth Lajos Kossuth de Udvard et Kossuthfalva (; ; ; ; 19 September 1802 – 20 March 1894) was a Hungarian nobleman, lawyer, journalist, politician, statesman and governor-president of the Kingdom of Hungary during the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, r ...
and the nationalist cause in
Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...
,
Garibaldi Giuseppe Maria Garibaldi ( , ;In his native Ligurian language, he is known as (). In his particular Niçard dialect of Ligurian, he was known as () or (). 4 July 1807 – 2 June 1882) was an Italian general, revolutionary and republican. H ...
's republican struggle in Italy, and the liberation movement in Poland; and in criticism of the British government's conduct of the
Crimean War The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont fro ...
. In 1865 he became a founder-member of the Birmingham Liberal Association. After George Dixon, the first secretary, was elected to parliament in a
by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, or a bypoll in India, is an election used to fill an office that has become vacant between general elections. A vacancy may arise as a result of an incumben ...
in 1867, Harris succeeded him as secretary in 1868, and oversaw the Association's reorganisation in preparation for the general election of that year. He remained secretary until 1873, when he was succeeded in turn by Francis Schnadhorst. He subsequently held office as the Association's Vice-President and President, finally retiring from the latter position, for reasons of ill-health, in 1882. Also in 1865, he was himself elected to Birmingham Town Council, representing the united wards of Deritend and Bordesley. In the autumn of 1869 he headed the deputation that persuaded
Joseph Chamberlain Joseph Chamberlain (8 July 1836 – 2 July 1914) was a British statesman who was first a radical Liberal Party (UK), Liberal, then a Liberal Unionist after opposing home rule for Ireland, and eventually was a leading New Imperialism, imperial ...
to stand for the Council, so launching the latter on a stellar political career. However, in 1871, when addressing a Council meeting, Harris suffered a minor paralytic stroke. Although he made a full recovery, he was sufficiently concerned about his health to stand down as a councillor, and his own political career thereafter tended to be more that of a backstage manager and strategist. The ''
Yorkshire Post ''The Yorkshire Post'' is a daily broadsheet newspaper, published in Leeds, Yorkshire, England. It primarily covers stories from Yorkshire, although its masthead carries the slogan "Yorkshire's National Newspaper". It was previously owned by ...
'' described him in 1884 as "of so modest and retiring a temperament that he is never seen or heard, and uninitiated people 'do not believe that there is any such person as Mr Harris', although he is the chief wire-puller". He was an ardent campaigner – again, alongside Dawson, Chamberlain, Dixon and others – for a system of free, compulsory, and non-sectarian elementary education. He was joint honorary secretary of the Birmingham branch of the National Public School Association, established in 1850 but short-lived; sat on the committee of the Birmingham Education Society established in 1867; and, when this evolved in 1869 into the National Education League, continued to be a committee-member and a significant participant until 1877, when the League was wound up and absorbed unto the National Liberal Federation. He tried to adapt his "Vote as you're told" scheme (see The Caucus below) to elections to
school boards A board of education, school committee or school board is the board of directors or board of trustees of a school, local school district or an equivalent institution. The elected council determines the educational policy in a small regional area, ...
in 1870; but here the complexity of the voting system defeated him, and his strategies met with only limited success. He was a member of the Arts Club, which existed from 1873 to 1880 for the purpose "of facilitating the daily social intercourse of gentlemen professing Liberal opinions, who are engaged or interested in the public life of Birmingham".


The Caucus

Harris is particularly remembered as the architect of the "Liberal
Caucus A caucus is a group or meeting of supporters or members of a specific political party or movement. The exact definition varies between different countries and political cultures. The term originated in the United States, where it can refer to ...
". Under the
1867 Reform Act The Representation of the People Act 1867 ( 30 & 31 Vict. c. 102), known as the Reform Act 1867 or the Second Reform Act, is an act of the British Parliament that enfranchised part of the urban male working class in England and Wales for the f ...
, Birmingham had been allocated three
seats A seat is a place to sit. The term may encompass additional features, such as back, armrest, head restraint but may also refer to concentrations of power in a wider sense (i.e " seat (legal entity)"). See disambiguation. Types of seat The ...
in the
House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, 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 ...
, while each elector had two votes to cast. From a party perspective, there was a danger of votes being "wasted" by being cast in unnecessarily large numbers for a single popular candidate (specifically, at this time,
John Bright John Bright (16 November 1811 – 27 March 1889) was a British Radical and Liberal statesman, one of the greatest orators of his generation and a promoter of free trade policies. A Quaker, Bright is most famous for battling the Corn La ...
), and of less popular candidates losing out. For the 1868 general election, Harris therefore introduced a new four-tier organisational structure – of
ward Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...
committees, General Committee, Executive Committee, and Management Committee – by means of which Liberal supporters in different wards could be marshalled to vote for candidates in different combinations, so ensuring an even spread.Cawood 2019–20. The plan – derided by its opponents as "Vote as you're told" – was wholly successful, and all three Liberal candidates were returned to Parliament with little significant difference in their polling figures. The strategy's mathematical basis was analysed in 1884–5 by Charles Dodgson ("
Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet, mathematician, photographer and reluctant Anglicanism, Anglican deacon. His most notable works are ''Alice ...
") in a booklet, ''The Principles of Parliamentary Representation''. Harris himself justified his reforms on democratic grounds, arguing that the party structure "should not only be a reflex of popular opinion, but should be so manifestly a reflex of that opinion that none could doubt it". In recognition of his contribution to the Liberal cause, a subscription list was prepared, and a gift of £240 presented to him in May 1869. In 1877, this local model of organisational control was transferred, in a form modified by Harris, to the newly established National Liberal Federation. Joseph Chamberlain acknowledged that "The whole credit of having initiated and carried out this new machinery belongs to my friend, Mr Harris." At the meeting in Birmingham on 31 May 1877 at which the Federation was launched, Harris delivered a "fiery harangue", again extolling the democratic foundations of the new structure, and arguing that it would henceforth be impossible for the government to ignore the popular will on such topical issues as the " Eastern Question". He was elected the Federation's first Chairman (with Chamberlain as President, and Schnadhorst as Secretary), and held office until 1882, when he stood down for health reasons. It was this rigorously disciplined party machine, further consolidated and emulated elsewhere, that became known to both detractors and supporters as the "Caucus"; and Harris was named the "father of the Caucus".


Liberal Party split

In 1886, Joseph Chamberlain resigned from the Liberal government over
William Gladstone William Ewart Gladstone ( ; 29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British politican, starting as Conservative MP for Newark and later becoming the leader of the Liberal Party. In a career lasting over 60 years, he was Prime Minister ...
's proposals for Irish Home Rule. The Birmingham Liberal Association, with the notable exception of Schnadhorst, stood behind Chamberlain. Harris was also among Chamberlain's supporters, but attempted to broker a compromise: he put a resolution to the National Liberal Federation which accepted the principle of a legislative assembly for Ireland, while at the same time asking Gladstone to maintain Irish representation at Westminster. This was defeated, and, with other Birmingham Liberals, Harris resigned from the General Committee of the Federation. However, early in 1888 he transferred his allegiance to the Gladstone camp, and was reinstated. He eventually retired from the committee in 1895.


Writing and cultural activities

Harris was a prolific writer in the radical cause. In 1855, with George Dawson, James Freeman, and others, he helped launch, and then became editor of, a local radical daily newspaper, the ''Birmingham Daily Press''. This was well received, but a commercial failure: it merged with the ''Birmingham Mercury'' in 1857, and ceased publication entirely in November 1858. In 1861, again with other members of the Dawson circle, he became one of the founders of, and an anonymous contributor to, a more successful satirical paper, ''The Town Crier''. This sought, through humour, to compare "municipal government as it was – in incompetent hands – with municipal government as it might be", and "in those days wielded considerable influence in the town".Anon. 1911, p. 70. At the monthly ''Town Crier'' dinners Harris is described as being "amusingly epigrammatic". He afterwards became an active (but still anonymous)
leader Leadership, is defined as the ability of an individual, group, or organization to "", influence, or guide other individuals, teams, or organizations. "Leadership" is a contested term. Specialist literature debates various viewpoints on the co ...
-writer for the ''
Birmingham Daily Post The ''Birmingham Post'' is a weekly printed newspaper based in Birmingham, England, with distribution throughout the West Midlands. First published under the name the ''Birmingham Daily Post'' in 1857, it has had a succession of distinguished ...
'' under the editorship of his friend, J. T. Bunce. In this capacity, he is described by H. R. G. Whates as an "old Radical warhorse". Even after the 1886–8 split in the Liberal Party had distanced him from many of his former associates, he continued to contribute articles to the ''Post'' on foreign affairs and other topics. In 1848, he became one of a group of friends who met regularly at one another’s houses to discuss philosophical, political and social matters. They called themselves the "Inner Circle", and it became their custom to prepare some written presentation in advance. In 1850, three of the members, Harris, J. A. Langford and Henry Latham, published a volume of poems that had emerged from these sessions, entitled ''Thoughts from the Inner Circle''. In 1885, Harris published a substantial ''History of the Radical Party in Parliament''. Robert Spence Watson wrote in 1907 that this work "ought to be known to every Liberal"; and H. R. G. Whates considered it "still not wholly superseded" in 1957. Harris was prominent on the committee that – following a failed attempt in 1852 – persuaded Birmingham Town Council in 1859 to adopt the Public Libraries Act, paving the way for the opening of the city’s Central Lending and Reference Libraries in 1865–6, and other branch libraries.Anon. 1911, p. 66. He subsequently served from 1868 to 1871 as chairman of the Birmingham Free Libraries Committee. In about 1858, he, Dawson, Samuel Timmins, Bunce, J. H. Chamberlain, and others in their circle, began to meet irregularly for literary and cultural discussions: by 1860, these meetings had been regularised into a more formal club, which in 1862 was named "Our Shakespeare Club". Whates calls Our Shakespeare Club "the intellectual centre of the community, ndthe nineteenth century equivalent of the famous
Lunar Society The Lunar Society of Birmingham was a British dinner club and informal learned society of prominent figures in the Midlands Enlightenment, including industrialists, natural philosophy, natural philosophers and intellectuals, who met regularly b ...
". It was largely responsible for the establishment of the Shakespeare Memorial Library within the Central Library building in 1864 (the tercentenary year of
Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...
's birth). Harris published an official ''History'' of the club in 1903. In 1870, along with J. T. Bunce, he was appointed by the Council to oversee the purchase of pictures and objects for the proposed Birmingham Art Gallery. He served on the council of the Birmingham and Midland Institute during the secretaryship of J. H. Chamberlain; and was also a member of the Birmingham Philosophical Society.


Later years and death

The split within the Liberal Party in 1886–8 over Irish Home Rule marked the disintegration of what had been a close-knit circle of like-minded reformers. In 1892, the radical preacher Dr Robert Dale, looking back to the 1870s, mused: Harris sat as a Justice of the Peace in Birmingham from 1880 until 1904, when increasing deafness forced his retirement. He died on 25 March 1911, of
heart failure Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome caused by an impairment in the heart's ability to Cardiac cycle, fill with and pump blood. Although symptoms vary based on which side of the heart is affected, HF ...
following an attack of
bronchitis Bronchitis is inflammation of the bronchi (large and medium-sized airways) in the lungs that causes coughing. Bronchitis usually begins as an infection in the nose, ears, throat, or sinuses. The infection then makes its way down to the bronchi. ...
, and was buried, alongside his first wife, in Key Hill Cemetery, Hockley.


Personal life

In 1848, Harris married Sarah Elsmere (1824–1885), daughter of Richard Elsmere of High Ercall, Shropshire. The couple had six children, of whom a girl and three boys died in infancy, leaving two sons to survive to adulthood: Sydney (1852–1903), and Arnold (1854–1929), who joined his father in his architectural practice.Anon. 1889, p. 85. In 1888, Harris married as his second wife Anna Mary Chamberlain ( Abrahams), the widow of his friend and former professional partner, J. H. Chamberlain. She survived him.


Publications

* (poetry) * *


References


Bibliography

* * * * * * (6 vols) * * * * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Harris, William 1826 births 1911 deaths Liberal Party (UK) councillors 19th-century English architects People from Cheadle, Staffordshire History of Birmingham, West Midlands Burials at Key Hill Cemetery Architects from Staffordshire Architects from Birmingham, West Midlands Writers from Birmingham, West Midlands Councillors in Birmingham, West Midlands Politicians from Staffordshire