| Henry Fawcett PC |
|
|---|---|
| Henry Fawcett and Millicent Garrett Fawcett by Ford Madox Brown, 1872, National Portrait Gallery, London. | |
| Postmaster General | |
| In office 3 May 1880 – 6 November 1884 |
|
| Monarch | Victoria |
| Prime Minister | William Ewart Gladstone |
| Preceded by | Lord John Manners |
| Succeeded by | George Shaw-Lefevre |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 26 August 1833 Salisbury |
| Died | 6 November 1884 |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Liberal |
| Spouse(s) | Millicent Garrett (1847-1929) |
| Alma mater | University of Cambridge |
Henry Fawcett PC (26 August 1833 – 6 November 1884) was a blind British academic, statesman and economist.[1]
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Fawcett was born in Salisbury, and educated at King's College School and the University of Cambridge: entering Peterhouse in 1852, he migrated to Trinity Hall the following year, and became a fellow there in 1856, the year he graduated BA as 7th Wrangler.[2] In 1858, when he was 25, he was blinded in a shooting accident. Despite his blindness, he continued with his studies, especially in economics. He was able to enter Lincoln's Inn but decided against a career as a barrister and took his name off their books in 1860.[3]
Two years later, Fawcett reportedly attended the 1860 Oxford evolution debate, during which he was asked whether he thought the bishop had actually read the Origin of Species. Reportedly, Fawcett replied loudly, "Oh no, I would swear he has never read a word of it". Ready to recriminate, Wilberforce swung round to him scowling, but stepped back and bit his tongue on noting that the protagonist was the blind economist.[4] At the next meeting (in September 1861) of the British Association in Manchester, Fawcett defended the logic behind Charles Darwin's theories.[5] This significantly affected its acceptance. In 1863 Fawcett published his Manual of Political Economy. In the same year he became Professor of Political Economy at Cambridge. He made himself a recognised authority on economics, his works on which include The Economic Position of the British Labourer (1871) and Labour and Wages. In 1883 he was elected Rector of Glasgow University.
After repeated defeats as a Liberal Party candidate, Fawcett was elected Member of Parliament for Brighton in 1865. He held this seat until 1874, and thereafter represented Hackney between 1874 and 1884. He campaigned for women's suffrage. In 1880 he was appointed Postmaster-General by William Ewart Gladstone and sworn of the Privy Council.[6] He had a particular interest in encouraging saving through the Post Office Savings Bank. He introduced the savings stamp which allowed people to save pennies at a time to build up the minimum account limit of a shilling. He pushed through parliament an act to allow savers to convert their post office savings to government stock and he developed the post office's life insurance and annuities schemes.[7] He introduced many other innovations, including parcel post, postal orders, and licensing changes to permit payphones and trunk lines.
Through his campaigning for women's suffrage, Fawcett met Elizabeth Garrett, to whom he proposed in 1865. She rejected the proposal to concentrate on becoming a doctor at a time when women doctors were extremely rare. However, in 1867 Fawcett married her younger sister Millicent Garrett in 1867.[8][9] They had one child, Philippa Fawcett. Fawcett's career was cut short by his premature death from pleurisy in November 1884, aged 51. There are statues of him in Salisbury Market Square and in Victoria Embankment Gardens near Charing Cross in central London. Sir Leslie Stephen wrote a biography of him, Life of Henry Fawcett, in 1885.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Cousin, John William (1910). A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London, J. M. Dent & Sons; New York, E. P. Dutton.
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Henry Moor James White |
Member of Parliament for Brighton 1865 – 1874 With: James White |
Succeeded by James Lloyd Ashbury Charles Cameron Shute |
| Preceded by John Holms Sir Charles Reed |
Member of Parliament for Hackney 1874 – 1884 With: John Holms |
Succeeded by James Stuart John Holms |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by Lord John Manners |
Postmaster General 1880–1884 |
Succeeded by George Shaw-Lefevre |
| Academic offices | ||
| Preceded by John Bright |
Rector of the University of Glasgow 1883–1884 |
Succeeded by Edmund Law Lushington |