Mark Philips

Mark Philips (4 November, 1800 – 23 December, 1873) cite web | url=http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/121627 | title=Plaque to Mark Philips on Welcombe Bank Obelisk | work=geograph | accessdate=2007-08-11 ] was an English Liberal Party politician, and one of the first pair of Members of Parliament for Manchester after the Great reform act. cite web | url=http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/PRphilipsM.htm | title=Mark Philips | work=Spartacus Educational | accessdate=2007-08-11 ]

Born in Philips Park, Whitefield, Lancashire, the son of Robert Philips, a prosperous merchant and Anne NeedhamFact|date=August 2007. He was educated at the Manchester Academy while it was in York and then at the University of Glasgow.Fact|date=August 2007 His younger brother, Robert Needham Philips, was also MP for Bury.Fact|date=August 2007

The town of Manchester was deprived of its parliamentary representation in 1660 in reprisal for its support of the Parliamentarian faction during the English Civil War. Representation was only restored following the Great Reform Act of 1832. (See main article "History of Manchester".)

He and Charles Poulett Thomson were the first pair of MPs elected in that year. He represented the city in Parliament until 1847, an active member of the Anti-Corn Law League. A champion of universal education, in 1837 he chaired a meeting that led to the creation of the Lancashire Public Schools' Association which was instrumental in establishing a system of publicly-funded schooling in the UK. cite web | url=http://www.manchester2002-uk.com/celebs/politicians2.html | title=Mark Philips MP | work=Papillon Graphics' Virtual Encyclopaedia of Greater Manchester | accessdate=2007-08-11 ] He also played an important role in establishing the UK's first free public library in 1852 and he was President of his old school Manchester Academy from 1842-1846 and from 1871 until his death.Fact|date=August 2007 He was High Sheriff of Warwickshire for 1851.

Philips donated money to many causes including £1,000 towards the fund for the provision of open spaces and parks for the City of Manchester. This resulted in many estates being purchased by the city, including Lark Hill in Salford, which became Peel Park, and the Bradford Estate which became Philips Park in east Manchester.

He died, aged 73, at Welcombe House, Snitterfield, near Stratford-upon-Avon.

Honours

*Philips Park in the Bradford area of east Manchester is named after him.
*There is a statue in Manchester Town Hall.
*An obelisk erected in memory of Philips in 1876 stands on the family's former estate outside Stratford-upon-Avon. [ cite web | url=http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/120081 | title=Welcombe Bank Obelisk | work=geograph | accessdate=2007-08-11 ]

References

External links

*Rayment
* cite web | url=http://www.manchester2002-uk.com/celebs/politicians2.html | title=Mark Philips MP | work=Papillon Graphics' Virtual Encyclopaedia of Greater Manchester | accessdate=2007-08-11
* cite web | url=http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/PRphilipsM.htm | title=Mark Philips | work=Spartacus Educational | accessdate=2007-08-11 ----