John Cunliffe Pickersgill-Cunliffe (1819 – 6 October 1873) was a British

bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...

er, who briefly served as

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 o ...

for

Bewdley Bewdley ( pronunciation) is a town and civil parish in the Wyre Forest District in Worcestershire, England on the banks of the River Severn. It is in the Severn Valley west of Kidderminster and southwest of Birmingham. It lies on the Riv ...

in 1869, representing the Conservative Party.

Early life

Born John Cunliffe Pickersgill in 1819 to John Pickersgill, a banker, and Sophia Pickersgill (''née'' Cunliffe), he assumed the name Cunliffe as a second surname in 1867, after inheriting the estate of an aunt of that name. He married Helen Hutton Dale, daughter of the Dean of

Rochester Cathedral Rochester Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary, is an English church of Norman architecture in Rochester, Medway, Rochester, Kent. The church is the cathedral of the Diocese of Rochester in the Church o ...

, in 1849.

Election

In 1869, a by-election was held in the Bewdley constituency, after the victory of Richard Atwood Glass in the 1868 general election was declared void. Pickersgill-Cunliffe was elected in the by-election, only for his victory to also be declared void on petition later that year, in favour of Augustus Anson. Pickersgill-Cunliffe served as an MP for only six weeks, from 11 March until 30 April 1869.

Death

Pickersgill-Cunliffe was struck by a train at Caterham Junction railway station (now known as Purley station) on 22 September 1873, near his home in

Coulsdon Coulsdon (, traditionally pronounced ) is a town in south London, England, within the London Borough of Croydon, in the ceremonial county of Greater London since 1965. Prior to this it was part of the historic county of Surrey. History The loc ...

, Surrey. He died two weeks later, on 6 October 1873, at

Guy's Hospital Guy's Hospital is an NHS hospital in the borough of Southwark in central London. It is part of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and one of the institutions that comprise the King's Health Partners, an academic health science centre. ...

in London. An inquest recorded a verdict of

accidental death An accidental death is an unnatural death that is caused by an accident, such as a slip and fall, traffic collision, or accidental poisoning. Accidental deaths are distinguished from death by natural causes, disease, and from intentional hom ...

References

1819 births 1873 deaths Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1868–1874 Railway accident deaths in England {{England-Conservative-UK-MP-1810s-stub