Sir Percy Harris, 1st Baronet

Sir Percy Alfred Harris, 1st Baronet PC (6 March 1876 – 28 June 1952) was a British Liberal Party politician.

Born in Kensington, Harris was educated at Harrow and Trinity Hall, Cambridge and was called to the bar. His father Wolf Harris, (1833 - 1926) had established the successful business of Bing, Harris in New Zealand during the gold rush era.

He was first elected to Parliament for the Harborough constituency at a by-election in 1916 but lost the seat at the 1918 general election.

In the 1922 general election Harris won the Bethnal Green South West constituency; he held the seat until his defeat at the 1945 general election by the Labour candidate Percy Holman. After the loss of his parliamentary seat he remained politically active and served on the London County Council until the year of his death. ['Bethnal Green: Local Government', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 11: Stepney, Bethnal Green (1998), pp. 190-202. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=22758. Date accessed: 13 March 2008.] He played a key role in the formation of Liberal International in 1947 and was President of the British Council of LI. [ [http://www.liberalhistory.org.uk/uploads/17_smith-liberals_unite.pdf Liberals Unite; The Origins Of Liberal International] ]

Harris served as Liberal Chief Whip 1933-45 and Deputy Leader of the Liberal Parliamentary Party.

On 14 January 1932 Harris was made the 1st Baronet of London. In 1940 he was appointed a Privy Counsellor.

In 1901 he married Marguerite Frieda Bloxam (1877-1962). In the 1930s Frieda Harris became an associate of the occultist Aleister Crowley and designed the Thoth Tarot with him. In 1946 he published his autobiography, "Forty Years In and Out of Parliament", Fleet Street Press.

On his death in Kensington aged 76 in 1952, the baronetcy was inherited by his son Sir Jack Harris (born 1906).

His great-grandson is the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament Matthew Taylor; but Taylor, adopted at birth, only discovered the fact in early 2008. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7315656.stm BBC NEWS | Magazine | The search for the 'political' gene ] ] He now wonders if political values can be innate as well as obtained.

External links

* [http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/portrait.asp?LinkID=mp56735&rNo=0&role=sit Portrait of Sir Percy Alfred Harris]

References

* Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
* Obituary, "Jewish Chronicle", 4 July 1952
* Malcolm Baines, Sir Percy Harris in Brack et al (eds.) "Dictionary of Liberal Biography"; Politico's 1998
* Sir Percy Harris, "Forty Years In and Out of Parliament"; Andrew Melrose, 1947

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