Charles McArthur (May 1844 – 3 July 1910) was a British average adjuster from

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

. He became a

Liberal Unionist The Liberal Unionist Party was a British political party that was formed in 1886 by a faction that broke away from the Liberal Party. Led by Lord Hartington (later the Duke of Devonshire) and Joseph Chamberlain, the party established a political ...

politician who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

in two periods between 1897 and 1910.

Life

McArthur was born near

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

in Kingsdown, the son of Charles McArthur from

Port Glasgow Port Glasgow ( gd, Port Ghlaschu, ) is the second-largest town in the Inverclyde council area of Scotland. The population according to the 1991 census for Port Glasgow was 19,426 persons and in the 2001 census was 16,617 persons. The most recen ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. He was educated at

Bristol Grammar School Bristol Grammar School (BGS) is a 4–18 mixed, independent day school in Bristol, England. It was founded in 1532 by Royal Charter for the teaching of 'good manners and literature', endowed by wealthy Bristol merchants Robert and Nicholas Thorn ...

, and moved to Liverpool in 1860 (aged 16) to work for North, Ewing & Co. However that business was unsuccessful, and in 1874 McArthur established his own average adjuster's business, Cort & McArthur. This business prospered, and McArthur became one of the best-known average adjusters in England. He served as chairman of the Association of Average Adjusters in the United Kingdom, as well as President of Liverpool Chamber of Commerce from 1892 to 1896, and 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 ...

in Liverpool. He served on several committees relating to

marine insurance Marine insurance covers the physical loss or damage of ships, cargo, terminals, and any transport by which the property is transferred, acquired, or held between the points of origin and the final destination. Cargo insurance is the sub-branch o ...

, including the Comité Maritime International, and wrote several books on marine insurance. He also wrote on religious topics. In 1897 he was chosen as the Liberal Unionist candidate for the

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

in the Liverpool Exchange seat. He was elected with a majority of only 54 votes (1% of the total) over his

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 ...

opponent

Russell Rea Russell Rea Privy Council of the United Kingdom, PC (11 December 1846 – 5 February 1916) was an English ship-owner from Liverpool and Liberal Party (UK), Liberal Party politician. He sat in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of ...

, and at the 1900 general election he was returned with an increased majority of 1,297 (30% of the votes) over the Liberal Frederick William Verney. However, at the next election, in 1906, McArthur was defeated by the Liberal

Richard Cherry Richard Robert Cherry PC, QC (19 March 1859 – 10 February 1923) was an Irish politician and judge. He was Attorney-General for Ireland from 1905 to 1909, a judge of the Irish Court of Appeal and subsequently Lord Chief Justice of the King's ...

, who had recently been appointed as

Attorney General for Ireland The Attorney-General for Ireland was an Irish and then (from the Act of Union 1800) United Kingdom government office-holder. He was senior in rank to the Solicitor-General for Ireland: both advised the Crown on Irish legal matters. With the es ...

. Apart from the nationwide swing to the Liberals, who gained 216 seats in that election, McArthur's defeat involved several local factors. As a

free trade Free trade is a trade policy that does not restrict imports or exports. It can also be understood as the free market idea applied to international trade. In government, free trade is predominantly advocated by political parties that hold econo ...

r, he lost the support of the many local unionists who favoured the system of

protectionism Protectionism, sometimes referred to as trade protectionism, is the economic policy of restricting imports from other countries through methods such as tariffs on imported goods, import quotas, and a variety of other government regulations. ...

known at the time as

tariff reform The Tariff Reform League (TRL) was a protectionist British pressure group formed in 1903 to protest against what they considered to be unfair foreign imports and to advocate Imperial Preference to protect British industry from foreign competition. ...

; while his staunch opposition to

Irish Home Rule The Irish Home Rule movement was a movement that campaigned for Devolution, self-government (or "home rule") for Ireland within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It was the dominant political movement of Irish nationalism from 1 ...

galvanised the large

Irish Nationalist Irish nationalism is a nationalist political movement which, in its broadest sense, asserts that the people of Ireland should govern Ireland as a sovereign state. Since the mid-19th century, Irish nationalism has largely taken the form of cu ...

population to support Cherry. However, McArthur returned to

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

the following year, when he was elected at a by-election in September 1907 as the MP for Liverpool Kirkdale. He told constituents that his election was a defeat of the Labour Party candidate

John Hill John Hill may refer to: Business * John Henry Hill (1791–1882), American businessman, educator and missionary * John Hill (planter) (1824–1910), Scottish-born American industrialist and planter * John Hill (businessman) (1847–1926), Austral ...

was a great victory for "the Protestants of Kirkdale" over socialists and Irish nationalists. He was re-elected in January 1910, and held the seat until his death. McArthur died aged 66 on 3 July 1910 at his home in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, from a gastric illness. His body was taken by train to Liverpool, and his funeral was held at

Wallasey Wallasey () is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, in Merseyside, England; until 1974, it was part of the historic county of Cheshire. It is situated at the mouth of the River Mersey, at the north-eastern corner of the Wirral Pe ...

cemetery in

Liscard Liscard is an area of the town of Wallasey, in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England. The most centrally located of Wallasey's townships, it is the main shopping area of the town, with many shops located in the Cherry Tree Sh ...

, Cheshire.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:McArthur, Charles 1844 births 1910 deaths Liberal Unionist Party MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1895–1900 UK MPs 1900–1906 UK MPs 1906–1910 UK MPs 1910 British businesspeople in shipping British businesspeople in insurance Businesspeople from Liverpool English people of Scottish descent Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Liverpool constituencies People educated at Bristol Grammar School Politicians from Bristol 19th-century English businesspeople