Charles Harrison was a
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
Liberal PartyThe Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
politician.
Harrison was born in
Muswell HillMuswell Hill is a suburb of north London, mostly in the London Borough of Haringey. It is situated about north of Charing Cross and around from the City of London. Muswell Hill is in the N10 postal district and mostly in the Hornsey and Wood Green parliamentary constituency.- History :The...
,
MiddlesexMiddlesex is one of the historic counties of England and the second smallest by area. The low-lying county contained the wealthy and politically independent City of London on its southern boundary and was dominated by it from a very early time...
, and was the third son of Frederick Harrison, a stockbroker, and his wife, Jane Brice. He was educated at
King's College SchoolKing's College School, commonly referred to as KCS, King's, or KCS Wimbledon, is an independent school for day pupils in Wimbledon in south-west London. The school was founded as the junior department of King's College London and occupied part of its premises in Strand, before relocating to...
and
King's College LondonKing's College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the federal University of London. King's has a claim to being the third oldest university in England, having been founded by King George IV and the Duke of Wellington in 1829, and...
. In 1858 he entered business as a solicitor at the firm of his uncle, also named Charles Harrison. He acquired a large practice in his own right, with major clients being the London Chatham and Dover Railway and the Law Fire Insurance Society. He became an advocate of the rights of tenants to purchase their properties and of the provision of housing for the working classes. In this he was in agreement with the policies of the Radical wing of the Liberal Party. In 1886 he married Lady Harriet Barlow.
His active involvement with politics came with the creation of the
London County CouncilLondon County Council was the principal local government body for the County of London, throughout its 1889–1965 existence, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today known as Inner London and was replaced by the Greater London Council...
in 1889. He was elected as one of the council's first members, representing
Bethnal Green South WestBethnal Green South West was a constituency in London. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom....
as a member of the Liberal-backed
Progressive PartyThe Progressive Party was a political party based around the Liberal Party that contested municipal elections in the County of London.It was founded in 1888 by a group of Liberals and leaders of the labour movement. It was also supported by the Fabian Society, and Sidney Webb was one of its...
. He was a leading member of the council, and vice-chairman from 1892 - 1895. His interests in the government of the capital led him to call for the municipalisation of the London docks and the unification of the
City of LondonThe City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...
with the county.
On two occasions Harrison stood for election to the United Kingdom House of Commons on behalf of the Liberals. In
1892The 1892 United Kingdom general election was held from 4 July to 26 July 1892. It saw the Conservatives, led by Lord Salisbury, win the greatest number of seats, but not enough for an overall majority as William Ewart Gladstone's Liberals won many more seats than in the 1886 general election...
he failed to be elected at
PlymouthPlymouth was a parliamentary borough in Devon, which elected two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons in 1298 and again from 1442 until 1918, when the borough was merged with the neighbouring Devonport and the combined area divided into three single-member constituencies.-In the...
. He stood again at the
ensuing general election in 1895The United Kingdom general election of 1895 was held from 13 July - 7 August 1895. It was won by the Conservatives led by Lord Salisbury who formed an alliance with the Liberal Unionist Party and had a large majority over the Liberals, led by Lord Rosebery...
, and became one of the town's two
members of parliamentA Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
, while continuing to hold his seat on the London County Council.
Harrison became suddenly ill with inflammation of the throat at the funeral of Sir
Frank LockwoodSir Frank Lockwood was an English lawyer and Liberal Party politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1885 to 1897....
on December 23, 1897, and died at his London home on the following day from heart failure.
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