S4 6 BRITISH OBITUARY 1912 



W. S. Penley, the actor; h. 1852; d. November nth. (See E. B. xxi, 99.) 



R. Norman Shaw, the architect; b. 1831; d. at ilampsteaci, November lyth. (See E. B. 

 xxiv, 813.) 



Walter William Skeat, the philologist; b. 1835; d. at Cambridge on the 6th of October. 

 (See E. B. xxiv, 168.) 



William Thomas Stead, the journalist; b. 1850; perished in the sinking of the "Titanic" 

 on the 1 5th of April. (See E. B. xxv, Siyc.) 



Edward O'Connor Terry, the actor; b. 1845; d. in London on the 3rd of April. (See 

 E. B. xxvi, 660.) 



Sir George Stuart White, the field-marshal; b. 1836; d. in London on the 24th of June. 

 (See E. B. xxviii, 599b, and for his Natal Campaign, xxvii, 2043 and 2O5d.) 



Biographical notes may be added concerning others who died during the year: 



By the death of Henry Du Pre Labouchere, the Radical politician and proprietor of 

 Truth, in Florence on the I5th of January, a famous figure passed away. Born in London 

 in 1831, the son of John Labouchere of Broome Hall and nephew of Lord Taunton (E. B. 

 xxvi, 4533), he was educated at Eton, and, after spending a short time at Cambridge, entered 

 the diplomatic service in 1854, becoming in 1863 second secretary to the British Embassy 

 at Constantinople. In 1864 he abandoned diplomacy for politics, and in 1865 was elected 

 Liberal member for Windsor, but was unseated on petition. In 1866 he won a by-election 

 for Middlesex, but failed to be re-elected in 1868. In 1880 he again entered the House of 

 Commons as Radical member for Northampton with Mr. Bradlaugh as his colleague, and this 

 seat he retained until his retirement in 1905. He began his journalistic career with the 

 Daily News, of which he became part proprietor just before the Franco-German war, and he 

 was himself the author of the Letters of a Besieged Resident, sent to it from Paris by balloon 

 post during the siege, addressed to his wife in London. In 1874 he became associated with 

 Edmund Yates on The World (see E. B. xxviii, 9o8b); but two years later he started Truth 

 as a rival society paper, destined, as he himself said, "to be another and a better World." 

 It had a remarkable record in the exposure of shams and organised impostures, especially 

 frauds on the charitable. Many libel actions were brought against it, but in 25 between 

 1897 and 1907 only 3 verdicts were given definitely against the paper. For many years 

 Mr. Labouchere himself contributed racy articles and notes, and he was to the end popularly 

 identified with Truth, though in fact he left the direction in later years first to Mr. Horace 

 Youles and then to Mr. Bennett, and took no active part either in writing or editing. He 

 was a thorough Bohemian, and after his death the whole story of his life connection with 

 Truth was very candidly told in a series of admirable articles in its columns. As a politician 

 "Labby " was the chartered jester of the House of Commons, but his pungent and somewhat 

 cynical speeches were the expression of highly independent democratic convictions, deeply 

 opposed to all forms of social privilege or Jingo Imperialism. He was a strenuous advocate 

 of the abolition of the House of Lords (see E. B. xx, 845d, 84ob); at the time of the Parnell 

 Commission (E. B. xx, 858d) he had much to do with the unmasking of Pigott; and he was 

 a member of the Inquiry into the Jameson Raid, his hostility to Mr. Chamberlain being as 

 pronounced as against Lord Rosebery when the latter became leader of the Liberal party. 

 He considered himself entitled to office when his party was in power, and was decidedly 

 mortified at not getting it from Mr. Gladstone. In 1868 he had married Miss Henrietta 

 Hodson, a popular actress. After 1903 he lived mainly in Italy, at a villa near Florence, 

 where he died. He left a fortune of some two million sterling to his daughter, who had 

 married a son of the Marquis di Rudini. 



Among other people of political prominence the following may be noted: 



The JOth Earl of Carlisle, who had succeeded to the title only in 191 1 ; b. 1867; d. January 

 2Oth. As Lord Morpeth (E. B. v, 34ib) he served on the London School Board from 1894 

 to 1902, and was Unionist member for South Birmingham 1904-11. 



Enoch Edwards, the Labour leader and M.P. for Hanley (since 1906); d. at Southport 

 on June 28th. Born at Talk-o'-the Hill, Staffordshire, in 1852, he was the son of a pitman, 

 and worked as a boy in a coal-mine. He became first treasurer, then secretary of the North 

 Staffordshire Miners' Association, and in 1884 went to Burslem, where he held various 

 municipal posts and finally became mayor. He was also president of the Midland Miners' 

 Association, and latterly president of the Miners' Federation of Great .Britain. 



George Harwood, cotton manufacturer and member of parliament; cl. in London ou 

 November 7th. Born at Bolton in 1845, he entered his father's cotton spinning business, 

 while still a student of Owens College, where he worked at classics and political economy 

 until he could take the London M.A. degree. Later he read theology, and in conjunction 

 with Dean Stanley and others founded the Church Reform Union. Under the .influence of 

 Bishop Fraser of Manchester he Was ordained deacon in 1886, and frequently preached in the 

 north of England though living outwardly the life of a layman. In 1895 he was elected 

 Liberal member for Bolton, and held the seat till his death. He published The Coming 

 Democracy, Essays for the Times, Christianity & Common Sense and other works. 



The 1st Baron Holden (see E. B. xiii, 582d), Liberal M. : P. for Bradford 1885, and the 

 Buckrose division of Yorkshire 1892-1900; I). 1833; d. at Bolton Percy on March 25th. 



