Alfred Illngworth MP

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Watercolour portrait of Alfred Illingworth MP.

from John Sowden's notebooks:

"Mr Illingworth was born in 1827 at Bradford and was educated at Huddersfield College. His father, Mr David Illingworth, was the founder of what ultimately became one of the largest spinning mills in Bradford. From the age of sixteen when he first began business in his fathers offices Mr Illingworth was said to have taken a more or less active, if unmarked part in politics; at the time of the general election of 1842 and at the beginning of the anti-corn law agitation. But in the public sense his career may be said to begin in 1857.
He was then thirty and for those years his elder brother Henry & he (in consequence of the death of their father in 1854) had been sole partners in the frim of D. Illingworth & Sons.
In 1868 he was elected to represent the borough of Knaresborough, sitting for that constituency till 1874. In 1880 W Illingworth and the late Mr W E Forster were returned as liberal representatives for the borough of Bradford and Mr Illingworth was a member of the house of commons for the next fifteen years.
In 1885, after the redistribution of seats, Mr Illingworth was elected the representative of the Western Division of Bradford, continuing to represent that constituency till 1895, when he decided to retire from parliamentary life. He had been for a very long term of years one of the best known members of the liberal party in and out of the House of Commons and it was common knowledge that it was only because he deserved the quaker? Freedom of advocacy and action possible to a private member that he refused the offer of ministerial responsibility made to him by the late Mr Gladstone.
One of the outstanding events of his years or comparative retirement was the presentation of the freedom of the city of Bradford on the 24th October 1902.
Mr Illingworth advocated many measures, principally religious equality & free and un? Education, extension of the franchise, financial reform, restriction of the liquor traffic, for radical land law reform, voting by ballot and for a free breakfast? Table etc. etc?
He was president of the Bradford Mechanics Institute from 1902 till his death & was a ? in 1857. In 1878 he was elected vice president & was a governor of the Bradford Grammar School and had been a member of the Bradford Chamber of Commerce.
Mr Illingworth was chairman of the Bradford District Bank and one of the founders of the Northern Education League. He married in 1866 Miss Margaret Holden, elder daughter of Sir Isaac Holden, by whom he has issue six sons. In religion a Baptist. He died in 1907."

Year

1889

Creator

John Sowden

Image filename

sowden-185