Henry Wilson (Holmfirth MP)

[2] One of his sons, Cecil Henry Wilson, was later a Labour Party politician and sat as MP for the constituency of Sheffield Attercliffe.

[6] His causes included the temperance movement, opposition to the state regulation of vice, non-sectarian education, Disestablishment of the Anglican Church, Irish Home Rule, internationalism, Anti-imperialism and the destruction of the Opium trade.

[7] In March 1873, Wilson and his supporters formed a rival political organisation, the Sheffield Reform Association with the aim of promoting a more radical Liberal voice in the city and in the hope of getting a candidate sympathetic to these progressive causes elected to Parliament.

[8] Perhaps the divisions of 1874 opened Wilson's eyes to the need for Liberal unity, perhaps made easier by the resignation of Mr Gladstone from the leadership of the Party in 1875.

[9] From this more mainstream base, Wilson was selected to stand as Liberal candidate for Holmfirth in the West Riding of Yorkshire at the 1885 general election.

He was Secretary of the Northern Counties Electoral League for the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts from 1872 to 1885 and of the British Continental and General Federation for the Abolition of Government Regulation of Prostitution, from 1875.