Charles Frederick White (11 March 1863 – 4 December 1923) was an English boot and shoemaker and Liberal Party politician. He was

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MP) for the Western Division of Derbyshire from 1918 to 1923.

Family and education

White was born in

Tetbury Tetbury is a town and civil parish inside the Cotswold district in England. It lies on the site of an ancient hill fort, on which an Anglo-Saxon monastery was founded, probably by Ine of Wessex, in 681. The population of the parish was 5,250 in ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

in 1863, the son of Frederick and Ruth White. He was educated privately in Tetbury. In 1881 he married Alice Charlesworth of

Bonsall, Derbyshire Bonsall is a village and civil parish in the Derbyshire Dales on the edge of the Peak District. The civil parish population, including Brightgate and Horse Dale, was 775 at the 2001 Census, increasing to 803 at the 2011 Census. Geography Bonsal ...

. They had one son and five daughters.''Who was Who'', OUP 2007 White's son, also called Charles Frederick (1891–1956), inherited his father's political activism, although in the

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

rather than the Liberal interest.

Career

White was originally a boot and shoemaker and dealer by trade but he gave this up to go into politics full-time by becoming a registration and

political agent Political Agent or political agent may refer to: *Political Resident, a representative with consular duties and political contacts with local chiefs *Political officer (British Empire), an officer of the British imperial civil administration, also ...

for the Liberal Party in the West Derbyshire area. He also acted as agent for

Barnet Kenyon Barnet Kenyon (July 1850 – 20 February 1930) was a British colliery worker, trade union official and Lib–Lab, later Liberal, politician. Early career Kenyon was born at South Anston, West Riding of Yorkshire (now South Yorkshire), the son ...

, the Derbyshire Miners' Association candidate at

Chesterfield Chesterfield may refer to: Places Canada * Rural Municipality of Chesterfield No. 261, Saskatchewan * Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut United Kingdom * Chesterfield, Derbyshire, a market town in England ** Chesterfield (UK Parliament constitue ...

.''The Times House of Commons, 1919''; Politico’s Publishing, 2004 p. 49

Politics

Local politics

As well as working as a political agent for the Liberal Party, White also went into local government politics. From 1898 to at least 1903 he was a member of the Bonsall

Urban District Council In England and Wales, Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland, an urban district was a type of local government district that covered an urbanised area. Urban districts had an elected urban district council (UDC), which shared local gove ...

, while by 1913 he was chairman of the Matlock Bath Urban District Council. He was for four years an elected member of

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

County Council A county council is the elected administrative body governing an area known as a county. This term has slightly different meanings in different countries. Ireland The county councils created under British rule in 1899 continue to exist in Irela ...

The Times, 5 December 1923 p. 18 and held the position of

magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judici ...

by virtue of being Chairman of a

Local Authority Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...

1910

White contested the West Derbyshire constituency at the general election of December 1910. The West Derbyshire seat and surrounding area had been a family heirloom of the local aristocrats the Cavendish family since the 16th century. Since the modern seat was created in 1885 it had been held solely by members of the Cavendish family. The sitting MP in 1910 was the Earl of Kerry. He had inherited the seat at a by-election in 1908 when he was returned unopposed as a Unionist. He held the seat against Liberal opposition in January 1910 and then defeated White in December 1910 with a majority of 1,060 votes.''The Times House of Commons, 1911''; Politico’s Publishing, 2004 p. 64

1918

1918 This year is noted for the end of the First World War, on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, as well as for the Spanish flu pandemic that killed 50–100 million people worldwide. Events Below, the events ...

however, the world turned upside down. Despite the Earl of Kerry's receiving the Coalition coupon which surely ought to have ensured his victory in such a safe

Tory A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. Th ...

seat, he lost to White by a majority of 2,160 votes.

1922–1923

At the 1922 general election, White faced a new Unionist opponent but another member of the Cavendish family, the Marquess of Hartington. In a tight contest White just managed to retain his seat, albeit by the narrow margin of 87 votes – just 0.4% of the total votes cast. White was intending to defend his seat again at the 1923 general election and he was duly nominated as a candidate but he died just before the election took place.

Death

White died of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...

on the morning of 4 December 1923, aged 60 years, having been taken ill after a meeting a few days before. His death meant that the election contest in West Derbyshire had to be postponed until 20 December 1923, all other polling having taken place on 6 December. The seat reverted to being the property of the Cavendish family when the Marquess of Hartington gained the seat at the expense of the new Liberal candidate W C Mallison.F W S Craig, ''British Parliamentary Election Results, 1918–1949''; Political Reference Publications, Glasgow, 1949 p. 326

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:White, Charles Frederick 1863 births 1923 deaths UK MPs 1918–1922 UK MPs 1922–1923 Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for constituencies in Derbyshire People from Tetbury Deaths from pneumonia in England Liberal Party (UK) councillors