Michael Meadowcroft & Liz Bee
Michael's involvement with history, Liberal and local, began with his MPhil research into "Transition in Leeds City Government 1903-26" at Bradford University from 1975 to 1978. This was just in time to track down local politicians - and particularly Labour pioneers - active from the beginning of the twentieth century. His interview notes and other research material have been used for a great deal of local research since then. He has also put together an extensive reference library, including many items of local and political ephemera. In 2007 Michael unveiled a blue plaque in memory of Leonora Cohen, a remarkable Leeds suffragette whom he interviewed thirty years earlier when she was aged 103!
His thesis was followed by him inaugurating the Liberal History Group in 1980. The speaker at one of its Liberal Assembly fringe meeting was Stephen Wilson, the last secretary of the Rainbow Circle.
Also in 1980 he contributed the chapter on the inter-war years, "The years of political transition", in the History of Modern Leeds, edited by Derek Fraser and published by the Manchester University Press.
His articles in Liberal journals and his own publications, including the three booklets on social democracy, the Left and the Right respectively (see Liberalism) drew heavily on lessons to be drawn from Liberal history.
In 2008 he became Chair of the Trustees of The Leeds Library - the oldest subscription library in the UK, having been founded in 1768 - and inaugurated an annual series of lectures on Leeds politicians.
Michael has also lectured on The Leeds Peace Convention of 1917 and on Leeds in the 1880s.
Hyman Morris - for Jewish History Association (January)
Charles Wilson, the big city boss - for Thoresby Society (April)
The Leeds Peace Convention of 1917 at Leeds Central Library (June 15)
It is hoped that one day we can put these lectures on the website! In the meantime, for more details about any of the following subjects, or to contribute to, or comment on any of them, please contact Michael. The Power Point file of the images connected with a lecture can be supplied on a memory stick.
One of the first professional recruits to Labour in Leeds. Served with distinction in the First World War. Leeds City Councillor, Member of Parliament and Labour peer.
Holbeck Councillor, Alderman and Lord Mayor, Liberal Whip and Leeds Party Leader.
Local teacher, Leeds suffragette, WSPU organiser and active Socialist.
Leeds Solicitor, Conservative Councillor, Alderman and Leeds Party Leader. Became Life Peer.
Labour pioneer and one of the earliest Labour Leeds City Councillors.
He was Leeds Labour leader, 1908-12 and Lord Mayor, 1937. He was expelled by his party and ended his career as an Independent Councillor.
A member of a prominent Quaker family in middle-class Adel, Isabella Ford was a founder of the Tailoresses Union, a member of the Independent Labour Party and an active suffragette.
Leeds Conservative MP 1880-1902, when created Lord Allerton. He combined Parliament with being leader of the Conservative Group on Leeds City Council. In 1895 he became the first Conservative Mayor since the 1835 Municipal Corporations Act.
Radical Liberal Councillor and Alderman. Magistrate, and the Honorary Secretary of the Leeds Musical Festival for thirty years from 1877. He was the printer and publisher of the weekly newspaper The Leeds Express.
A shrewd and successful businessman, Edward Brotherton was prominent in the civic life of Wakefield and Leeds. Possibly the greatest individual benefactor of the University of Leeds.
A clergyman and a socialist, Charles Jenkinson was above all a man in a hurry. In three short years as Chair of the City Council's Housing Committee, Jenkinson transformed the City's housing policy
The first woman Lord Mayor of Leeds and one of the first women magistrates in the City, Beatrice Kitson was a determinedly independent civic figure and yet another leading Leeds citizen from the Mill Hill Chapel.
Arguably the most remarkable Leeds City Council leader ever. Councillor and Alderman from 1890 to 1928. MP for Leeds Central, 1923-29. Accountant, Justice of the Peace and Freeman of the City.
A Chartist Councillor and MP, and a self educated farm worker who became a businessman and political activist, Robert Meek Carter's career provides a vivid study of radicalism, personal ambition and local politics.
Community worker, pacifist and Liberal MP, T Edmund Harvey was a gentle but determined advocate for his Quaker beliefs and principles. He saw his role as being to give political expression to the causes he consistently espoused.
A Jewish immigrant who fled from the Russian Empire, Hyman Morris became a leader of his community in Leeds, a very successful businessman and a Conservative Councillor, Alderman and the first Jewish Lord Mayor of his adopted city.
Catholic, socialist, suffragette and trade unionist, Bertha Quinn was a formidable but difficult individual who espoused causes with great passion but little diplomacy.
Harding was a manufacturer of pins for the textile industry and a Liberal Unionist politician.
By profession a building society manager, he was a brilliant party agent at a time of political volatility. Had he been heeded - and have lived longer - it is possible that the rise of Labour in Leeds could have been fended off.
Three times Mayor of Leeds and a Liberal Councillor of remarkable foresight and ability, he was instrumental in the municipal initiative which brought clean drinking water into Leeds from the valleys to the north of the city.
A man who was a dedicated trade unionist and, through curious circumstances, became Leeds' only Communist councillor.
NB. A number of articles and reviews on the Liberalism pages are on local or Liberal history.