Baxter Langley

John Baxter Langley was educated at Sherborne, and studied at King's College London and the Leeds School of Medicine.

[4] He also became involved in the Peace Society,[5] supported the Polish people during the January Uprising,[6] and joined with radicals such as Edmond Beales and trade unionists such as George Odger to form the Garibaldi Working Men's Committee.

[8] He then became editor of the Newcastle Chronicle and, while there, raised considerable funds for victims of mining disasters, mostly notably an 1860 explosion at the Burradon Colliery.

[12] Langley planned to stand in Greenwich again at the 1868 United Kingdom general election, but ultimately withdrew, to ease the path of William Gladstone, the Liberal Chancellor of the Exchequer.

He put himself forward at the 1870 Colchester by-election, having been persuaded by Josephine Butler to stand in opposition to the Contagious Diseases Acts and Sir Henry Storks, the Liberal candidate, who was a leading supporter of it.

This was discovered in 1877, and the case was taken to trial; all were found guilty of conspiracy to defraud, and Langley was sentenced to eighteen months hard labour.