Sir Charles Gold (1837 – 2 November 1924) was a British company director, landowner and

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

politician. He was Member of Parliament for

Saffron Walden Saffron Walden is a market town in the Uttlesford district of Essex, England, north of Bishop's Stortford, south of Cambridge and north of London. It retains a rural appearance and some buildings of the medieval period. The population was 15, ...

from 1895 to 1900.

Background

Gold was born the son of Michael Gold, of Birmingham. In 1859 he married Fanny Georgina Gilbey. They had thirteen children; seven sons and six daughters. He was knighted in 1906. He was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant for Essex on 20 February 1900, and served as a

Justice of the peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

.'GOLD, Sir Charles’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2016; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014 ; online edn, April 201
accessed 8 May 2016
/ref>

Professional career

Gold was a director of his brother-in-law Walter Gilbey's wine and spirits retail company, W. and A. Gilbey. He owned property in

Stansted, Essex Stansted Mountfitchet is an English village and civil parish in Uttlesford district, Essex, near the Hertfordshire border, north of London. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 5,533, increasing to 6,011 at the 2011 census. The v ...

Political career

Gold was selected as Liberal candidate for the Saffron Walden division of

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

for the 1895 General Election. Saffron Walden was already a Liberal seat, so his election to parliament was expected. He served for one parliamentary term before retiring in 1900. He did not stand for parliament again. He continued to support the Liberal Party, being a major financial contributor to the party in Saffron Walden in 1906. In 1910 he left the Liberals to join the Conservatives due to his opposition to Lloyd George's

People's Budget The 1909/1910 People's Budget was a proposal of the Liberal government that introduced unprecedented taxes on the lands and incomes of Britain's wealthy to fund new social welfare programmes. It passed the House of Commons in 1909 but was bloc ...

that introduced new taxes on landowners.Herts and Essex Observer, 8 January 1910

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gold, Charles 1837 births 1924 deaths Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies UK MPs 1895–1900 Businesspeople from Birmingham, West Midlands Conservative Party (UK) politicians