Henry Fawcett
history, | birth_place = Salisbury | death_date = | death_place = | nationality = British | party = Liberal | alma_mater = University of Cambridge | spouse = Millicent Garrett
(1847-1929) }}
Henry Fawcett PC (26 August 1833 – 6 November 1884) was a blind British academic, statesman and economist.
Background and education
Fawcett was born in Salisbury, and educated at King's College School and the University of Cambridge: entering Peterhouse in 1852, he migrated to Trinity Hall the following year, and became a fellow there in 1856, the year he graduated BA as 7th Wrangler. In 1858, when he was 25, he was blinded in a shooting accident, in spite of which he continued with his studies, especially in economics.
Academic career
Two years later, Fawcett reportedly attended the 1860 Oxford evolution debate, during which he was asked whether he thought the bishop had actually read the Origin of Species. "Oh no, I would swear he has never read a word of it", Fawcett reportedly replied loudly. Wilberforce swung round to him scowling, ready to recriminate, but stepped back and bit his tongue on noting that the protagonist was the blind economist. Janet Browne, Charles Darwin: The Power of Place, 2003, p. 126.. At the next, September, 1861, meeting of the British Association in Manchester, Fawcett defended the logic behind Darwin's theories London Illustrated News,Sept. 16, 1861,p279. This significantly affected its acceptance. In 1863 Fawcett published his Manual of Political Economy, becoming in the same year Professor of Political Economy at Cambridge. He made himself a recognised authority on economics, his works on which include The Economic Position of the British Labourer (1871) and Labour and Wages. In 1883 he was elected Rector of Glasgow University.
Political career
After repeated defeats Fawcett was elected Member of Parliament for Brighton in 1865, a seat he held until 1874, and therafter represented Hackney between 1874 and 1884. He campaigned for women's suffrage. In 1880 he was appointed Postmaster-General by William Ewart Gladstone and sworn of the Privy Council. He introduced many innovations, including parcel post, postal orders, and licensing changes to permit payphones and trunk lines.
Family
Through his campaigning for women's suffrage, Fawcett met Elizabeth Garrett, to whom he proposed in 1865. She rejected the proposal to concentrate on becoming a doctor at a time when women doctors were extremely rare. However, in 1867 Fawcett married her younger sister Millicent Garrett in 1867.»Millicent Garrett Fawcett - Spartacus EducationalThe Passing Parade with John Doremus, Evening with Ian Holland, Radio 2CH 20:40 AEST 3 August 2007. They had one child, Philippa Fawcett. Fawcett's career was cut short by his premature death from pleurisy in November 1884, aged 51. There are statues of him in Salisbury Market Square and in Victoria Embankment Gardens near Charing Cross in central London. Sir Leslie Stephen wrote a biography of him, Life of Henry Fawcett, in 1885.