Thomas Owen Jacobsen

Thomas Owen Jacobsen (1864 - June 15, 1941) was a British businessman and Liberal politician. He was born in Liverpool, and was the son of a naturalised Dane."Resignation of Mr Neilson", The Times, March 3, 1916, p.9] He was a master printer and the senior partner in the stationery company of Jacobsen, Welch and Company, whose paper mills were at Hyde, Cheshire. ["S. E. Southwark Contest", The Times, November 21, 1921, p.7] "News in Brief", March 13, 1916, p.5]

In March 1916, Francis Neilson, MP for Hyde resigned his seat. Jacobsen was chosen as Coalition Liberal candidate, and was elected at the ensuing by-election. He held the seat until the 1918 general election, when the constituency was abolished. In 1917 he was appointed as private secretary to Leo Chiozza Money, Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Shipping. ["Ministerial Secretaries", The Times, February 19, 1917, p.11]

Jacobsen was a resident of Brixton in South London, and in 1919 he was elected as a member of the London County Council for Lambeth North. He was part of the Liberal-supported Progressive grouping on the council. ["LCC Election Results", The Times, March 8, 1919, p.14] In 1921 the MP for Southwark South East resigned, and Jacobsen was chosen by the local Liberal Progressive and Radical Association to fight the by-election. He was not opposed by the Conservative Party, but refused to describe himself as a Coalition Liberal, but as a "Liberal supporting the Coalition Government". ["S. E. Southwark Contest", The Times, November 21, 1921, p.7] The contest took place on December 14, 1921, and Jacobsen was heavily defeated by Thomas Naylor, leader of the London Labour Party. ["Labour Victory in Southwark", The Times, December 15, 1921, p.12]

Jacobsen lost his seat on the London County Council in 1922, and stood unsuccessfully for the Liberals at Lambeth Kennington at both the 1923 and 1924 general elections. ["General Election 1923 - Candidates nominated", The Times, November 27, 1923, p.8] ["The General Election: First List of Candidates", October 15, 1924] The 1929 election was his last electoral contest, when he failed to win the City of London for the Liberals. ["Election Contest in the City", The Times, May 11, 1929, p.9]

Jacobsen retired from politics, and was president of the Stationers Association of Great Britain and Ireland from 1929 to 1931. ["Obituary: Mr T. O. Jacobsen", The Times, June 19, 1941, p.7] In 1935 the Jacobsen and Welch Company was sold. ["City News in Brief", The Times, April 16, 1935, p.23] He died in Worthing, Sussex in 1941, aged 77. ["Deaths", The Times, June 18, 1941, p.1]

References