William Harris (1826 – 25 March 1911) was a Liberal politician and strategist in Birmingham, England, in an era of dramatic municipal reform.

[1] J. L. Garvin called him "the Abbé Sieyès of Birmingham" (in allusion to one of the chief political theorists of the French Revolutionary era);[2] and Asa Briggs "a most active and intelligent wire-puller behind the scenes".

[7] Notable commissions included: in 1878–79, 24 Priory Road, Edgbaston, a house for J. T. Bunce;[8] in 1888, the Rolfe Street public baths, Smethwick, now re-erected at the Black Country Living Museum;[9] in 1881–84, an extension to the headquarters building of the Birmingham Banking Company in Bennetts Hill, Birmingham;[10] and, for the same company in 1883, the "Old Bank" (now a branch of HSBC) in Stratford-upon-Avon, which was decorated with 15 terracotta panels of Shakespearean scenes by Samuel Barfield (1830–1887) of Leicester.

[7][20] As a young man, Harris was greatly impressed by the charismatic nonconformist minister, George Dawson, who preached the doctrine of social improvement and enlightened municipal reform subsequently known as the "Civic Gospel".

[24][25] He spoke publicly in support of Lajos Kossuth and the nationalist cause in Hungary, Garibaldi's republican struggle in Italy, and the liberation movement in Poland; and in criticism of the British government's conduct of the Crimean War.

Although he made a full recovery, he was sufficiently concerned about his health to stand down as a councillor, and his own political career thereafter tended to be more that of a backstage manager and strategist.

[34][35] The Yorkshire Post described him in 1884 as "of so modest and retiring a temperament that he is never seen or heard, and uninitiated people 'do not believe that there is any such person as Mr Harris', although he is the chief wire-puller".

[42] He was a member of the Arts Club, which existed from 1873 to 1880 for the purpose "of facilitating the daily social intercourse of gentlemen professing Liberal opinions, who are engaged or interested in the public life of Birmingham".

[46][47][48][49][50] The plan – derided by its opponents as "Vote as you're told" – was wholly successful, and all three Liberal candidates were returned to Parliament with little significant difference in their polling figures.

[53] In 1877, this local model of organisational control was transferred, in a form modified by Harris, to the newly established National Liberal Federation.

"[56] At the meeting in Birmingham on 31 May 1877 at which the Federation was launched, Harris delivered a "fiery harangue", again extolling the democratic foundations of the new structure, and arguing that it would henceforth be impossible for the government to ignore the popular will on such topical issues as the "Eastern Question".

Harris was also among Chamberlain's supporters, but attempted to broker a compromise: he put a resolution to the National Liberal Federation which accepted the principle of a legislative assembly for Ireland, while at the same time asking Gladstone to maintain Irish representation at Westminster.

[76] Even after the 1886–8 split in the Liberal Party had distanced him from many of his former associates, he continued to contribute articles to the Post on foreign affairs and other topics.

Whates calls Our Shakespeare Club "the intellectual centre of the community, [and] the nineteenth century equivalent of the famous Lunar Society".

[25] The split within the Liberal Party in 1886–8 over Irish Home Rule marked the disintegration of what had been a close-knit circle of like-minded reformers.

The split of the Liberal Party has made an immense difference to my private life.Harris sat as a Justice of the Peace in Birmingham from 1880 until 1904, when increasing deafness forced his retirement.

[25] He died on 25 March 1911, of heart failure following an attack of bronchitis, and was buried, alongside his first wife, in Key Hill Cemetery, Hockley.

The couple had six children, of whom a girl and three boys died in infancy, leaving two sons to survive to adulthood: Sydney (1852–1903), and Arnold (1854–1929), who joined his father in his architectural practice.