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.^[1] His Krakow-born father, Wolf Harris, (1833 – 1926) had established the successful business of Bing, Harris in New Zealand in 1858.

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.^[2] He played a key role in the formation of Liberal International in 1947 and was President of the British Council of LI.^[3]

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 (23 July 1906 – 26 August 2009).

His great-grandson is the former Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament Matthew Taylor; but Taylor, adopted at birth, only discovered the fact in early 2008.^[4]

References

^ Harris, Percy Alfred in Venn, J. & J. A., Alumni Cantabrigienses, Cambridge University Press, 10 vols, 1922–1958.
^ '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.
^ Liberals Unite; The Origins Of Liberal International
^ BBC NEWS | Magazine | The search for the 'political' gene

Bibliography

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

External links

Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Sir Percy Harris
Portraits of Sir Percy Harris at the National Portrait Gallery, London

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by John William Logan	Member of Parliament for Harborough 1916 – 1918	Succeeded by Sir Keith Fraser
Preceded by Sir Mathew Wilson	Member of Parliament for Bethnal Green South West 1922 – 1945	Succeeded by Percy Holman
Party political offices
Preceded by Walter Rea	Liberal Chief Whip 1935–1945	Succeeded by Tom Horabin
Preceded by ?	Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party 1940–1945	Succeeded by ?
Baronetage of the United Kingdom
New title	Baronet (of London)	Succeeded by Jack Harris