Howard Vincent

[3][4] In 1871, he served as a correspondent with the Daily Telegraph in Berlin and then went on to Russia to learn the language and study the country's military organisation.

After his regiment was posted to Ireland later that year, he began to address political meetings on the Irish question, expressing generally Liberal views.

In that and the following year he travelled to Turkey and again to Russia, learning Turkish (to add to Russian, French, German and Italian, which he already knew).

He was called to the bar on 20 January 1876[1] and joined the South-Eastern Circuit in the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division, although he never really devoted himself to the law.

In 1877 he enrolled as a student at the faculté de droit of the University of Paris and investigated the Parisian police.

[11] He was selected to command the infantry of the City Imperial Volunteers in the Second Boer War, but was eventually refused permission to go due to a heart problem.

[17] Vincent went on a world tour, in which he was so impressed with the effects of imperialism that he decided to stand for the Conservative Party (although he had previously tended towards Liberalism).

At the general election in November 1885 he defeated Samuel Plimsoll to win the constituency of Sheffield Central.

[19] As an MP Vincent became the first politician to rally the public in support of opposition to immigration and make it a campaign issue.