David Waddington (1810 – 12 October 1863) was an English

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

politician. He was born in Manchester the son of an

iron founder An iron founder (also iron-founder or ironfounder) in its more general sense is a worker in molten ferrous metal, generally working within an iron foundry. However, the term 'iron founder' is usually reserved for the owner or manager of an iron foun ...

. By 1836 he was running his own mill. Between the years of 1845-49 Waddington was Vice-Chairman of the Eastern Counties Railway and Chairman from 1851 to 1856. He negotiated agreements to work most of the lines (that had been built by this point) in East Anglia creating a network of 565 miles by 1854. He was responsible for the takeover of the

Eastern Union Railway The Eastern Union Railway (EUR) was an English railway company, at first built from Colchester to Ipswich; it opened in 1846. It was proposed when the earlier Eastern Counties Railway failed to make its promised line from Colchester to Norwich. T ...

in 1854 where his ability to drive a hard bargain caused the EUR chairman J Cobbold to remark "a strong minority of our Board consider that you have done us". Waddington however was exposed in a scandal on the ECR as forced to resign in 1856. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for

Maldon Maldon (, locally ) is a town and civil parish on the River Blackwater, Essex, Blackwater estuary in Essex, England. It is the seat of the Maldon District and starting point of the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation. It is known for Maldon Sea ...

from 1847 to 1852 and then for

Harwich Harwich is a town in Essex, England, and one of the Haven ports on the North Sea coast. It is in the Tendring district. Nearby places include Felixstowe to the north-east, Ipswich to the north-west, Colchester to the south-west and Clacton-on- ...

from 1852 to 1856. His election for the Maldon constituency is interesting in that he was at the time backing the construction of the

Witham-Maldon branch line The Witham to Maldon branch line is a closed railway line joining Maldon to the British railway network at Witham in Essex, England. It was opened in 1848 and was long. It was extended to Woodham Ferris (later Woodham Ferrers) to give direct acce ...

and a significant number of people working on the branch were registered to vote locally and a number of local people were employed on the works but this employment ceased the Tuesday after the election. Locally these men were known as "Waddington's Guinea Pigs"! A report published after the following election (by which time Waddington was standing in Harwich) was quite damning in its belated assessment of the 1847 election. In 1854 his son Richard died followed by his wife in 1859. Waddington died on 12 October 1863 from bowel cancer and was buried in Enfield.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Waddington, David 1801 births 1863 deaths Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1847–1852 UK MPs 1852–1857 Politics of Essex Members of Parliament for Maldon