Jabez Balfour

Jabez Spencer Balfour (4 September 1843 – 23 February 1916) was a businessman, British Liberal Party politician and criminal.

He was Member of Parliament for Tamworth from 1880 to 1885, and for Burnley from 1889 to 1893. Balfour was also interested in local politics in his home town of Croydon, Surrey where he regularly topped the poll for the school board [David McKie, 'A Sincere, Thorough & Hearty Liberal' Journal of Liberal History, Issue 52, Autumn 2006] . When Croydon got borough status in 1883 he was selected as charter mayor and re-elected for a second term. In 1885 he stood as Liberal candidate in Croydon at the general election but lost to the Conservatives. He also stood unsuccessfully for the Liberals at Walworth in 1886.

In 1892, he was at the centre of a scandal when the Liberator Building Society, which he set up and controlled, failed, leaving thousands of investors penniless. Instead of advancing money to home buyers, the Society had advanced money to property companies to buy properties owned by him, at a high price. [Youssef Cassis, "City Bankers, 1890-1914", Cambridge University Press (1994), page 164.] After the swindle was discovered, Balfour fled the country. He was arrested in Argentina by Inspector Frank Froest of Scotland Yard in 1895; with extradition proceedings held up by legal wrangling, Froest simply bundled Balfour into a train and then a boat sailing for England. [Ethan Avram Nadelmann, "Cops Across Borders: The Internationalization of U.S. Criminal Law Enforcement", Penn State Press (1993), page 59.] Balfour was tried at the Old Bailey and sentenced to 14 years penal servitude, most of which was served in harsh conditions in Portland prison. [John Briggs, Crime and Punishment in England: An Introductory History, Routledge (1996), page 227.]

When he was released from prison in 1906, his memoirs were serialised by Lord Northcliffe's "Weekly Despatch" newspaper. He died in 1916, on a train from London to Wales, heading for a job as a mining consultant.

References

*"Jabez: The Rise and Fall of a Victorian Scoundrel" by David McKie (Atlantic Books, 2004) ISBN 1-84354-130-0

External links

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