Sir Arthur Henry Crosfield, 1st Baronet, (5 April 1865 – 22 September 1938) was a Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) for

Warrington Warrington () is a town and unparished area in the borough of the same name in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, on the banks of the River Mersey. It is east of Liverpool, and west of Manchester. The population in 2019 was estimat ...

from 1906 to December 1910.

Background

In 1907 he married Domini Elliadi who was also active in Liberal politics.

Political career

He was elected during the 1906 Liberal landslide gaining Warrington from the Conservative Robert Pierpont. He was re-elected in January 1910 but defeated by the Conservative Harold Smith in December 1910. He was created a

baronet A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...

, of

Highgate Highgate ( ) is a suburban area of north London at the northeastern corner of Hampstead Heath, north-northwest of Charing Cross. Highgate is one of the most expensive London suburbs in which to live. It has two active conservation organisati ...

in the

County of Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbourin ...

, on 24 June 1915. He was interested in the Balkans, and wrote ''The Settlement of the Near East'', published in 1922.

Business career

From his parents, he inherited the business of

Joseph Crosfield and Sons Joseph Crosfield (5 October 1792 – 16 February 1844) was a businessman who established a soap and chemical manufacturing business in Warrington, which was in the historic county of Lancashire and is now in the ceremonial county of Cheshire. T ...

, soap and candle manufacturers. He sold the company in 1911, bought Parkfield, an elegant 18th-century house in

, north London, on the proceeds and rebuilt and enlarged it over the next seven years as

Witanhurst Witanhurst is a large Listed building#England and Wales, Grade II listed 1930s Georgian Revival mansion on in Highgate, North London. It has had several prominent owners since being rebuilt by soap magnate Sir Arthur Henry Crosfield, Arthur Cro ...

("Parliament on the Hill"), being the largest house in London after

Buckingham Palace Buckingham Palace () is a London royal residence and the administrative headquarters of the monarch of the United Kingdom. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is often at the centre of state occasions and royal hospitality. It ...

. He was a keen

golfer Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

and won many championships. Crosfield was also Chairman of the

National Playing Fields Association Fields in Trust, is a British charity set up in 1925 as the National Playing Fields Association (NPFA), by Brigadier-General Reginald Kentish and the Duke of York, later King George VI, who was the first president, which protects parks and green s ...

, for which he was appointed a

Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

(GBE) in 1929. He served as a School Governor for

Highgate School Highgate School, formally Sir Roger Cholmeley's School at Highgate, is an English co-educational, fee-charging, independent day school, founded in 1565 in Highgate, London, England. It educates over 1,400 pupils in three sections – Highgate ...

from 1929–1930. Crosfield lost a fortune in a failed Greek mining venture in the mid-1930s, and was killed shortly thereafter when he fell out of the window of a railway sleeper car near Toulon in southern France.

References

Politics of Warrington UK MPs 1906–1910 Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies 1938 deaths 1865 births Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire {{England-Liberal-UK-MP-stub