[3] According to an obituary published by Reuters at the time of his death it was whilst at Paris that he "obtained a much wider and less insular view of national and international problems, particularly in regard to tariffs, than he could have got at that period in England.

The Birchenoughs, who were Methodists, were a prominent business family in Macclesfield, and Henry's father, a Liberal, served as mayor of the town in 1876.

[5] Later in life whilst Chairman of the Beit Railway Trust, Birchenough supported Ruzawi School in Southern Rhodesia.

[6] As well as being a partner in the family silk business Birchenough was also a director of the Imperial Continental Gas Association and of British Exploration of Australia Ltd, and later served as president of the Macclesfield Chamber of Commerce.

They had not yet found any good reason given for excluding from parliamentary suffrage women who had already voted in municipal and school board elections; therefore they intended to reiterate their demands until they were conceded".

In her book Three Visits to America, Faithfull writes the following about the Birchenough silk mills: "No one could desire to see women looking more healthy than the operatives in some of our factories in Manchester, Bradford, and Halifax.

The walls were adorned by appropriate mottoes, even unique representations of the bridal ceremony had been devised, and everything betokened the happy understanding existing there between labor and capital.

Birchenough also laid out a number of suggestions to be considered to increase the United Kingdom's competitive edge; these and the rest of his report were incorporated into a Blue Book.

In presenting the grant he stated that the trustees has agreed to set aside this sum for two years commencing in 1933 to improve ground services along the Imperial Airways route in the country.

Together with Milner, Birchenough was a member of the Coefficients dining club,[31] founded at a dinner given by Sidney and Beatrice Webb in September 1902, and which was a forum for the meeting of British socialist reformers, Tories and imperialists of the Edwardian era.

[32] Birchenough held Liberal Unionist views and published an article entitled "Mr Chamberlain as an Empire Builder", in the periodical Nineteenth Century and After in 1902.

Birchenough also contributed to two compilations of essays and lectures in the pre-First World War period regarding imperial thinking.

In 1902 Birchenough wrote an article titled "Preferential Tariffs within The Empire – A Reply to Sir Robert Giffen", in the periodical, Nineteenth Century and After.

[13] In 1919, under the chairmanship of Birchenough, the Advisory Council to the Ministry of Reconstruction produced the Report of the Committee of Chairmen[33] on Electric Power Supply.

The Birchenough Committee generally agreed with the Williamson Report but recommended that generation and transmission should be a single unified system with a state regulation and finance and that means should be found for including distribution as well.

[37] In 1900, Birchenough joined with Thomas Coglan Horsfall to instigate the Patriotic Association of Macclesfield, which was envisaged as a feeder for the local Volunteer Force.

[40] The manifesto followed a series of letters which had appeared in the Morning Post and attracted support from diverse figures including Neville Chamberlain, Sir H. Rider Haggard, and Lord Northcliffe.

[40] Henry Birchenough married Mabel Charlotte, third daughter of George Granville Bradley, Dean of Westminster in December 1886.

[30] Mabel, like her sister Margaret,[42] was a writer and the author of The Popular Guide to Westminster Abbey (1885), Disturbing Elements (1896), Potsherds (1898), and Private Bobs and the New Recruit (1901).