Gordon Harvey

Alexander Gordon Cummins Harvey (31 December 1858 – 6 November 1922) was a British cotton manufacturer and merchant and Liberal politician.

Career

Gordon Harvey (as he was usually known) was born in Manchester the son of Cummins Harvey ^[1] who was a partner in the cotton yarn and cloth manufacturing firm of Fothergill and Harvey.^[2] Gordon Harvey himself went on to become the head of an important firm of cotton spinners, manufacturers and merchants with mills at Littleborough and with warehouses and offices in Manchester.^[3]

Politics

Lancashire County Council

A Liberal in politics, and sometime Chairman of Middleton Division Liberal Association,^[4] Harvey was elected to Lancashire County Council in the year after its creation and was later made an Alderman of the county. He remained chairman of the county education committee up until the time of his death. He also served as a Justice of the Peace in Lancashire.^[1]

Parliament

Harvey first stood for Parliament at the Khaki election of 1900 as Liberal candidate for Rochdale. The election was fought in the jingoistic atmosphere of the Second Boer War which favoured the Conservatives. Despite taking the anti-war side Harvey still managed to come within 19 votes of beating the sitting Conservative MP, Clement Royds. Harvey was elected as MP for Rochdale, however, at the 1906 general election beating Royds, who had held the seat since 1895, by 1,463 votes. He held the seat at the general elections of January and December 1910.

He was on the extreme pacifist wing of the party and led the opposition to increased naval spending as World War One approached. The economist Francis Hirst wrote an approving biography of him.

Harvey was interested in the environment and in being a benevolent employer and some of his public works still survive in Littleborough.

Death

Harvey was obliged to stand down from Parliament at the 1918 general election because of a disease of the throat, presumably cancer. He had to undergo two operations as a result ^[3] but died at Windermere from the illness aged 63 years.^[5]

His family remained active in Liberal politics, his nephew Charles standing unsuccessfully for Rochdale in 1945 and another nephew Alexander sponsoring the young Cyril Smith to become a Liberal agent.

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Who was Who, OUP 2007
2. ^ http://www.rochdaleobserver.co.uk/community/rochdale_150/work/s/510/510679_major_move_to_plastic_kept_firm_in_credit.html
3. ^ ^{a b} The Times, 7 November 1922 p15
4. ^ The Times House of Commons, 1910; Politico’s Publishing 2004 p48
5. ^ The Times, 8 November 1922 p1

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Gordon Harvey

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Clement Royds	Member of Parliament for Rochdale 1906–1918	Succeeded by Alfred Law

Persondata
Name	Harvey, Alexander Gordon Cummins
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	31 December 1858
Place of birth
Date of death	6 November 1922
Place of death