Ryland Adkins

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Ryland Adkins

Sir William Ryland Dent Adkins (11 May 1862 – 30 January 1925) was an English barrister, judge and Liberal politician.

Family and education

Ryland Adkins, as he was known at least professionally, was the son of William Adkins

University College, London where he obtained a BA degree [2] and Balliol College, Oxford where he won a History Exhibition.[3] He was an ardent Free churchman and was an active member of the Congregational Union
.

Career

Adkins studied for the law and in 1890 was

knighted in 1911.[1]

Politics

Northamptonshire politics

Adkins was an original member of

Deputy Lieutenant of Northamptonshire in 1922 and served for many as a JP for the county and Borough of Northampton.[1] Adkins was proud of his Northamptonshire heritage and was the author of a book about the county in 1893 and a contributor to a number of others including the Victoria History of the County
.

Parliament

Adkins was first elected to Parliament at the 1906 general election as Liberal MP for Middleton, Lancashire in a straight fight with the Unionists by a majority of 1,533 votes.

General election January 1906: Middleton[7][page needed] Electorate 14,314
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Ryland Adkins 7,018 56.1 +
Conservative Cyril CH Potter 5,485 43.9 -
Majority 1,533 12.2
Turnout 87.3
Liberal gain from Conservative Swing +

He held the seat in the January 1910 general election.

General election January 1910: Middleton[7] Electorate 15,391
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Ryland Adkins 7,669 55.0 -1.1
Conservative Patrick Rose-Innes 6,266 45.0 +1.1
Majority 1,403 10.0 -2.2
Turnout 90.5 +3.2
Liberal hold Swing -1.1

Adkins held his seat again in a straight fight against a Liberal Unionist candidate, this time with a majority of 1,403 and in December 1910 with a majority of 787.

General election December 1910: Middleton[7] Electorate 15,391
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Ryland Adkins 7,071 52.9 -2.1
Liberal Unionist
 William Hewins 6,284 47.1 +2.1
Majority 787 5.8 -4.2
Turnout 86.8 -3.7
Liberal hold Swing -2.1

Middleton by-election, 1911

In 1911 upon his appointment as

Recorder of Nottingham, Adkins was obliged by the electoral law of the day to resign his seat and re-contest it at a by-election held on 2 August 1911. His candidature was opposed by the Conservatives. W A S Hewins who was his opponent at the December 1910 general election and who had reduced his majority from 1,403 votes in January 1910 to 787 in December, stood against him again.[8] The by-election was fought mainly on the issue of National Insurance which Hewins took up vigorously, if by some accounts rather cynically. In the course of the campaign Lloyd George had to send Adkins a letter for public consumption refuting in detail Hewins’ claims. Despite the strong attack however Adkins held on, although Hewins reduced his majority again, this time to 411 votes.[9]

1911 Middleton by-election[7] Electorate 15,447
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Sir Ryland Adkins 6,863 51.5 -1.4
Liberal Unionist
 William Hewins 6,452 48.5 +1.4
Majority 411 3.0 -2.8
Turnout 86.2 -0.6
Liberal hold Swing -1.4

The Marconi Scandal

Adkins played a cameo role in the

H H Asquith’s Liberal government, notably Lloyd George and Rufus Isaacs, had profited by improper use of information about the Government's intentions with respect to the Marconi Company. Knowing that the government was about to issue a lucrative contract to the British Marconi company, they had bought shares in an American subsidiary. In the end Parliament did not wish to see these ministers brought down over their involvement in an affair from which they had not profited unduly and it was their political judgment rather than their honour which was questioned. Adkins was chosen by the government Whips to move an amendment to a motion of censure on the issue which accepted the ministers’ expressions of regret and acquitted them of acting in bad faith and of charges of corruption.[10]

1918 General Election

The

H H Asquith during the war and in the split in the Liberal Party occasioned by Lloyd George's replacement of Asquith as prime minister. He opposed the introduction of conscription and he voted with Asquith and against Lloyd George in the Maurice Debate of May 1918. Despite all this he received the Coalition ‘coupon’ for the 1918 general election and thereafter acted in Parliament as a Lloyd George Liberal.[11] Adkins’ Middleton seat had disappeared in a boundary revision for this election and he had been adopted as Liberal candidate for the new Middleton and Prestwich constituency. As a result of receiving the ‘coupon’ Adkins did not face a Conservative opponent at the general election and held his seat comfortably with a majority of 8,330 over Labour.[12]

Middleton and Prestwich by-election, 1920

Adkins had to go through the by-election process again in 1920 on his appointment as Recorder of Birmingham. At this by-election however he was returned unopposed as a result of an electoral truce called because of an outbreak of smallpox in Middleton and the recommendation of the medical authorities that door to door canvassing and public meetings should be avoided.[13]

1922–1924

In 1922, Adkins fought Middleton and Prestwich as a National Liberal. Although Lloyd George had been ousted as prime minister as a result of the decision of Conservative MPs at the Carlton Club meeting of 19 October 1922 to withdraw from the coalition, Adkins did not face Unionist opposition in 1922. In a straight fight with Labour candidate Matthew Burrow Farr, he held the seat by a majority of 4,327 votes.

By the time of the

incomplete short citation][page needed] Stewart-Sandeman's victory was the first recorded Conservative gain of the election.[15]

Adkins attempted to regain the seat at the

incomplete short citation][page needed
]

Other public appointments

During his political career Adkins served on many different committees and public inquiries as an appointee of the government. The following are examples of his more important commissions.

Drunkenness law

In 1908 he was appointed by the Home Secretary to sit on a committee to investigate the operation of the law in relation to inebriates (drunkenness).[16]

Isle of Man constitution

In 1911 he was appointed a member of the Home Office Committee of Inquiry into the

Lieutenant Governor of the Isle of Man, the Island's Legislative Council and the British Home Office on the one side and the members of the House of Keys on the other, on the question of where responsibility for the passing of money bills should sit, with the Keys asserting primacy as the elected representatives of the Manx people.[18]

Electoral Reform

Adkins also sat as a member of the Speaker's Conference on Electoral Reform of 1917–1918, which looked amongst other things at the proposals for

votes for women which came into effect for the 1918 general election.[19] The conference also proposed the ending of plural voting and the introduction of proportional representation in large urban areas [20]
but these were among the recommendations not introduced.

Pensions

In 1919 Adkins was appointed chairman of a committee set up to look at the operation of the statutory scheme of Old Age Pensions.[21] The proceedings of the committee were open and public, ensuring the evidence of the witnesses concerning the poor social and economic circumstances of pensioners was placed squarely in the public domain. As a result of the committee's recommendations the pension increased to 10 shillings a week and various conditions of qualifications were relaxed in favour of applicants, including the raising of income limits, with the effect that around 220,000 additional pensioners came onto the books.[22]

Federal Devolution

Also in 1919 Adkins was a member of the Commission on Federal

Irish Home Rule.[23] Adkins seemed to be especially interested in this issue of devolution and led or was a member of different deputations to the prime minister to promote home rule all round. In 1921 he backed a Parliamentary Bill to devolve certain powers from the Westminster government to subordinate Parliaments in England, Scotland and Wales.[24]

Others

In 1924, he was appointed chairman of a committee established to investigate offences against children and also served as a member of the

Royal Commission
on Local Government

Death

Adkins died at his home at Springfield, Northampton of gastric influenza on 30 January 1925, at the age of 62.[25]

Publications

  • Author of Our County: Sketches in Pen and Ink of Representative Men of Northamptonshire. London: Elliott Stock. 1893.
  • Introductory chapter in Markham, C.A, ed. (1898). The Records of the Borough of Northampton. Northampton: Corporation of Northampton.
  • Introduction to Culross, James (1897). The Three Rylands: A Hundred Years of Various Christian Service. London: Elliott Stock.
  • Co-editor (with R.M. Serjeantson): A History of the County of Northampton. Victoria County History. Vol. 1. Westminster: Archibald Constable & Co. 1902.
  • Co-editor (with R.M. Serjeantson): A History of the County of Northampton. Victoria County History. Vol. 2. Westminster: Archibald Constable & Co. 1906.

References

  1. ^
    doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U192621. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  2. ^ The Times, 31 January 1925, p. 14.
  3. ^ The Times House of Commons 1910; Politico’s Publishing 2004, p. 69.
  4. ^ The Times, 28 January 1890.
  5. ^ The Times, 24 November 1892, p. 11.
  6. ^ The Times, 13 July 1917, p. 3.
  7. ^ a b c d British parliamentary election results, 1885-1918 (Craig).
  8. ^ The Times, 2 August 1911, p. 11.
  9. ^ P. F. Clarke, Lancashire and the New Liberalism; Cambridge University Press, 2007, p. 386.
  10. H Montgomery Hyde
    , Lord Reading: The Life of Rufus Isaacs, First Marquess of Reading; Heinemann, 1967, p. 159.
  11. ^ Trevor Wilson, The Downfall of the Liberal Party; Cornell University Press, 1966, pp. 160-161.
  12. F W S Craig
    , British Parliamentary Election Results, 1918-1949; Political Reference Publications, Glasgow, 1949, p. 401.
  13. ^ The Times, 15 November 1920, p. 9.
  14. ^ a b F W S Craig, op cit.
  15. ^ The Times, 7 December 1923, p. 12.
  16. ^ The Times, 25 April 1908, p. 11.
  17. ^ The Times, 13 April 1911, p. 10.
  18. ^ The Times, 6 March 1911, p. 6.
  19. ^ The Times, 3 February 1917, p. 5.
  20. ^ The Times, 28 March 1917, p. 7.
  21. ^ The Times, 8 November 1919, p. 9.
  22. ^ John Macnicol, The Politics of Retirement in Britain, 1878-1948; Cambridge University Press, 2002 Chapter 7 – The First World War and the Rylands Adkins Committee, p. 167ff.
  23. ^ The Times, 17 October 1919, p. 13.
  24. ^ The Times, 29 April 1921, p. 7.
  25. ^ The Times, 31 January 1925, p. 14.

External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Edward Fielden
Member of Parliament for Middleton
1906–1918
 Constituency abolished
New constituency
Member of Parliament for Middleton & Prestwich
1918–1923
 Succeeded by
Nairne Stewart Sandeman
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