George Harwood

George Harwood went to school locally in Lancashire and then entered his father's cotton business while still finding time to continue his education at Owens College, the establishment founded with a bequest left by John Owens, a successful Manchester cotton merchant and first set up in a house in Deansgate, Manchester, once occupied by Richard Cobden.

Around this time he and his family moved to London, where Harwood began work as a barrister, although he still travelled often to the north to look after his cotton interests.

At the general election of 1895 he stood as the Liberal candidate in Bolton, a two-member seat which had been held by the Conservatives for ten years.

In Parliament he took a keen interest in issues to do with the Church and licensing but he was also concerned with working conditions, being a principal supporter of a Bill for the early Saturday closing of textile factories, although this also had to do with the slowing down of the cotton trade.

After his death at his Knightsbridge home at South Audley St, George Harwood was buried at West Norwood Cemetery.