Edmond Beales

Edmond Beales (1803-81) was the President of the Reform League and was a central figure in the 19th century British reform movement.

Biography

Edmond Beales was the son of Samuel Pickering Beales, a merchant of Newnham, Cambridgeshire and was born 3 July 1803. He was educated at Eton and Trinity Colleges Cambridge and gained a B.A. in 1825 and an M.A. in 1828. He became a Barrister in 1830. He married Elizabeth, the daughter of James Marshall, manager of the Provincial Bank of Ireland.

Edmond is most famous for being the President of the Reform League who campaigned for representation of the working classes in parliament and whose efforts culminated in the Reform Act of 1867.

At the height of the Reform League's popularity it arranged for a meeting to he held at Hyde Park. The procession started off from the Reform League's headquarters, at 8 Adelphi Terrace, headed by a cab containing Edmond, his friend Colonel Dickson and a few other aristocratic supporters. As they headed up Regent Street it was decided that these gentlemen would visit Gunter's Tea Shop in Berkeley Square and so left the procession. This left John Bedford Leno and a few others, at the head of the procession who proceeded to face the police at Marble Arch and to hold the famous 1867 Hyde Park demonstration.

Edmond died at Osborne House, Bolton Gardens South, Brompton, Middlesex on 26 June 1881.

Career

* 25 Jun 1830 - Barrister M.T. (Conveyancer)
* 1862-66 - Revising Barrister for Middlesex
* 1863 - President of National League for Independence of Poland
* ???? - Chairman of Circassian Committee
* 1865-69 - President of the Reform League
* 1868 - Parliamentary Candidate for Tower Hamlets
* 1870-81 - Judge for county courts of Beds and Cambs

References

* John Bedford Leno. "The Aftermath with Autobiography of the Author". Reeves & Turner. London. 1892

Persondata
NAME= Beales, Edmond
SHORT DESCRIPTION= Radical
DATE OF BIRTH= July 3, 1803
PLACE OF BIRTH= Newnham, Cambridgeshire
DATE OF DEATH= June 26, 1881
PLACE OF DEATH= Brompton, Middlesex