A Liverpool Exemplar - Sir Arthur Bower Forwood

Arthur Bower Forwood was born on the 23rd of June 1836 in Edge Hill, Liverpool. He was the eldest son of Thomas Brittain Forwood, a merchant, of Thornton Hough on Wirral, and Charlotte née Bower, the daughter of a cotton broker. He was educated at Liverpool College and when his father retired from the business in 1862, he ran it with his younger brother William at the age of 25. This made him a senior partner in shipping lines based in Liverpool, London and New York.

This was at a time when the cotton trade was being disrupted by the American Civil War so Arthur expanded his markets to Central America and the West Indies.

The brothers made a fortune, first from wartime speculation and blockade running, and then from exploiting telegraph and cotton futures. They set up offices in New York City, New Orleans and Bombay and ran a small fleet of ships that traded in the West Indies, Costa Rica and New York.

Arthur soon became known in Liverpool circles as a man of enterprise, shrewdness and probity and became president of the town’s Chamber of Commerce. He was also invited onto the board of the Cunard and West India Pacific Steamship lines.

His political life started in 1871 when he was elected as a city councillor and, politically active, he then served as Liverpool's Lord Mayor Mayor from 1877-78 and served as chairman of the finance, artisans dwellings and health committees. He was also president of the committee that promoted the foundation of the Bishopric of Liverpool, as well as chairman of the institution which founded University College Liverpool. Although he had great local prominence, he had ambitions on a national scale and sought election to Parliament. In the General Election of 1885 he was returned as MP for Ormskirk, a seat he held until his death.  An advocate of council housing for the poor he had a number of articles published in papers of the day. He also promoted pensions, employers liabilities, parliamentary reform and universal suffrage. Somewhat forceful in manner, he did not make friends easily but at the same time he remained well respected across the political spectrum, as was shown when his resignation from Liverpool council was not accepted and he remained as an alderman.

In 1886 Lord Salisbury appointed him as Parliamentary and Financial Secretary to the Admiralty, where he advocated for smaller warships that could be put to sea more quickly than larger vessels and played a key role in getting the Naval Defence Act through Parliament.

He was interested in yacht racing in his leisure time and was one of the founders of the Yacht Racing Association. He was married twice, his first wife Lucy dying in 1873 after fifteen years of marriage. A year after her death he married his second wife Mary, with whom he had eight children; four sons and four daughters.

In 1892 he was appointed as a privy councillor, the first town councillor to achieve this position and was created a baronet in 1895 remaining active in political affairs right up until the illness that caused his death at the age of 62. He was also the first ship owner to become an Admiralty minister. One of the last things he did on a local scale was push through the electrification of the tramway system.  On 21st September 1898 he attended a meeting of local Conservatives but suffered an attack of colitis at his Gateacre home, The Priory. A telegraph was sent to his wife who was staying in Welshpool urging her to return at once as his condition was deteriorating fast. Although an operation on the 25th was successful, he had worked so hard he had no reserves of strength to recuperate and died at The Priory just two days afterwards in the early hours of the morning.

On his death Lord Salisbury sent a telegram to his family which was made public by his eldest son, 23 year old Dudley. It said, 'The loss to his party and to his native city will be deeply felt.' Flags around Liverpool flew at half mast and the police courts paid tribute to him before proceedings commenced.

The Morning Post obituary said that Forwood was 'eminently of the class of which it was once the fashion to call merchant princes' and described him as having 'ambition and passion beyond the mere domain of the counting house' as it paid tribute to him finding a scope for both. Almost 3,000 mourners were estimated to have attended his funeral, which took place at All Saints Church in Childwall.

In July 1904 a  statue was unveiled in the newly opened St John’s Gardens in the city centre that is still there today. Sculpted by George Frampton, it is cast in bronze as if addressing a meeting. At the unveiling Lord Derby said he was ‘one of the greatest men that Liverpool has ever produced’.

see also:- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2020/08/a-liverpool-exemplar-mary-sheridan.html