He briefly held elected office on Birmingham Council, and was offered the chance to stand for Parliament in winnable seats, but he found his true metier was in political organisation and administration both in his home town as secretary of the highly successful Birmingham Liberal Association from 1867 to 1884, and nationally as secretary of the newly formed National Liberal Federation from 1877 to 1893.

[1] Francis Schnadhorst was the son of a draper and hosier of German descent[2] who carried on business in Bull Street, Birmingham.

[3] His father died when he was very young and he was brought up by his mother and his paternal grandfather who owned a tailoring business in Moor Street.

[2] Before the end of the 19th century the Liberal party's championing of reform and improvement had created in Birmingham a model of civic government.

[6] The local Liberal Party was compelled to rethink its structure in response to this civic expansion, and in anticipation of the additional electors enfranchised by the 1867 Reform Act.

[7] Membership was open to anyone able to pay the one shilling annual fee, meaning that political participation was no longer the preserve of the traditional ruling classes.

Its existence enabled the Liberals to fight general, town council and school board elections more effectively and successfully.

Schnadhorst first became involved in political activity at the Birmingham election of 1867 when he took on the roles of vice-chairman and secretary to the St. George's Ward Liberal committee.

He was himself briefly a member of the Council for St Mary's Ward in 1872, but was most effective as secretary of the Birmingham Liberal Association from 1873 onwards.

[2] The Liberals had already been electorally successful in Birmingham, particularly at the 1868 general election, but Schnadhorst bolstered the party's organisation to oust the Conservative and Anglican majorities on the town council and the school board.

[9] Before the 1885 general election, Schnadhorst was invited to stand in two Birmingham seats, South and East, both of which were subsequently won by the Liberals.

[11] Chamberlain described it as "a really Liberal Parliament...elected by universal suffrage and with some regard for fair distribution of political power".

As secretary, he became the link between the leadership and the constituency associations and hence the key figure in rebuilding the party following the split over Irish Home Rule and the defection of the Liberal Unionists.

One of Schnadhorst's jobs was to provide speakers who would draw crowds at Liberal rallies[13] and it was William Ewart Gladstone who addressed the inaugural meeting of the NLF at Bingley Hall, Birmingham in 1877.