Sir Wilfrid Lawson, 2nd Baronet, of Brayton

Sir Wilfrid Lawson, 2nd Baronet (4 September 1829 – 1 July 1906) was an English temperance campaigner and radical, anti-imperialist Liberal Party politician who sat in the House of Commons variously between 1859 and 1906.

Jackson predominantly taught his pupils Greek and Latin prose, complemented with mathematics, natural sciences, political economy, English and foreign history, with the elements of rhetoric and logic to enhance the curriculum.

In 1848, they contemplated the events surrounding the revolution, when the morning newspapers reported some fresh upheaval, spreading relentlessly across Europe, shaking kingdoms and thrones, causing terrific slaughter in France, provoking Chartist riots in England, and bringing home lessons of deep political importance.

[11] In his lifetime Lawson was one of Britain's most celebrated and popular political figures and yet he was not a pamphleteer or an essayist, nor was he the owner of a newspaper or a periodical like his radical colleagues, Joseph Cowen and Henry Labouchere.

[21] For suggesting that people had the right to restrict the access of others to the liquor shops, the full weight of public opinion favouring the liberty of the subject, backed by the Tories and brewing industry, rained down upon him.

Although Lawson was popular for other reasons, and lost the election by a mere seventeen votes, it prompted The Times newspaper to run an article suggesting that no future sensible constituency would ever return him to the house.

[22] However, an opportunity arose for an early return to parliament in July 1866, after Lord Naas, the Conservative member for the small ancient borough of Cockermouth became Chief Secretary of Ireland.

"[29] Lawson also voted in a minority division of two in support of Sir Charles Dilke when heavily censured by parliament after seeking returns relating to the expenditure on the British Royal family.

[33] He supported Gladstone in his sustained attack on the British government's policy relating to the Eastern question by proposing, although unsuccessfully, Resolutions against the Vote of Credit for £6,000,000 and 20,000 men, and the calling out of the Reserve.

It began with a sustained attack against the annexation of the Transvaal, which swiftly lead to the Zulu war[36] and the role played by Sir Bartle Frere, the High Commissioner to the Cape Colony, whom Lawson continuously asked parliament to recall.

Underlying all of these policies was an inherent distrust of the concept of empire and a cardinal belief in the traditional assertions of Cobden, that Britain should promote peace, and avoid interference in the political institutions of other nations.

[51] On one occasion, in a blistering attack on the Government's forward policy, Lawson reminded his colleagues of their probable response had the bombardment occurred under a Conservative and not a Liberal administration.

After 50,000 Mahdist tribesmen annihilated a 10,000-strong Egyptian army under the command of a reluctant British mercenary, general William Hicks Pasha, the Cabinet fully understood the serious nature of their involvement in Egypt.

[54] However, his attitude towards Gladstone's imperialist policies in Egypt had made enemies in his Cockermouth constituency and on 5 December, the newly enfranchised electorate rejected his appeal by a small but decisive margin of ten votes.

[59] In October 1891, the Liberal Party held their annual conference in the city of Newcastle, where delegates thrashed out a radical agenda to take them through the next general election, and beyond to the new century.

"[61] The election issue was no longer simply Home Rule; it was the full Newcastle programme, and Lawson was anxious to settle the Irish question to secure further domestic reforms.

[61] Back in parliament Lawson continued to support Gladstone, who introduced his Second Home Rule bill, which, except for a reduced number of Irish members at Westminster mirrored its predecessor.

[citation needed] The Cockermouth electorate returned Lawson to parliament in the general election of 1895, where, with a slightly reduced majority he continued to prosecute his anti-war opinions.

In 1898, he criticised the government, the Clergy, the newspaper editors and above all, public opinion after a command under General Kitchener slaughtered thousands of Dervish natives at the battle of Omdurman.

On numerous occasions, he voted against, and spoke out against providing finance, sending men, ammunition and supplies, in the vain hope that with sufficient support he could bring down the government and so end the war.

[67] Later that year he proposed that "the Laws under which Licences are granted for the sale of Intoxicating Liquors are eminently unsatisfactory and deficient in power to protect the public, and therefore require immediate alteration.

On 8 June, Lawson rose in front of a packed House of Commons to deliver a speech of great ability that filled four pages of Hansard, to move the second reading of the first of several Permissive Bills.

[80] At the time of his death, Lawson was chiefly known as a pro-Boer, and anti-everything else; a little Englander, a Peace-at-any-price Man, a would-be destroyer of the established church, the House of Lords, the liquor traffic, and several other institutions less robust.

He supported payment for Members of parliament, women's suffrage, the construction of a Channel tunnel, the Irish Home Rule movement, opposed coercion in all its manifestations and stoically defended Free Trade whenever a threat appeared.

On 21 April 1908, the Earl of Carlisle, unveiled a memorial, designed by Louis Frederick Roslyn, in the form of a drinking fountain surmounted by a bronze group of St. George and the dragon.

On the left-hand side a third panel depicts Peace, on which appears a tribesman dressed in savage garb, clasping the hand of friendship held out by a warrior kneeling at the feet of a winged Angel, which crowned by a halo is rising in the background.

The fourth panel bears the following inscription: On 6 June 1908, the Lawson family installed a stained glass window dedicated to the memory of their late patriarch, in the east end of Aspatria Church.

It was unveiled, amidst continuous interruptions by suffragettes, by the then prime minister, H. H. Asquith, who said: The bronze statue, designed by David McGill, is striking, life-like and shows Lawson, in an attitude of debate.

On the front of the pedestal on which it stands is the inscription: – "Sir Wilfrid Lawson, Bart., of Brayton, Cumberland; born September 4th, 1829: Member of Parliament for Carlisle, Cockermouth, Camborne, 1859 1906; president of the United Kingdom Temperance Alliance, 1879 1909."

"A true patriot, a wise and witty orator, a valiant and farseeing reformer, he spent a long life as the courageous champion of righteousness, peace, freedom and temperance."