Sir John Henry Birchenough, 1st Baronet, (7 March 1853 – 12 May 1937) was an English businessman and public servant.
Early life and education Birchenough was born in Macclesfield, Cheshire, the second son of John Birchenough, a silk manufacturer. He was educated firstly at Strathmore House, Southport, then subsequently at the University of Oxford, University College, London (BA, 1873; MA, 1876). It was at University College London that he became close friends with Leonard Montefiore, the Jewish philanthropist. This friendship was described in the introduction to Montefiore's posthumous "Essays and Letters" as "the greatest friendship of his life- a friendship which was marred by no reserves and subject to no fluctuations but continued from its first commencement to Montefiore's death".Essays and Letters by Leonard A. Montefiore, in Memoriam, Page 10, Privately Printed. London 1881. Latterly Birchenough attended the École Libre des Sciences Politiques, Paris. According to an obituary published by Reuters at the time of his death it was whilst at Paris that he "obtained a much wider and less insular view of national and international problems, particularly in regard to tariffs, than he could have got at that period in England."Notable Work For the Empire; Reuters Wednesday March 12th 1937
Business In the mid-19th century, Macclesfield had a thriving silk industry, and Birchenough joined the family silk business, John Birchenough & Sons, as a partner with his father and two brothers, Walter Edwin Birchenough (the father of the Very Reverend Godwin Birchenough) and William Taylor Birchenough. The latter was married to Jane Peacock, daughter of Richard Peacock MP, the locomotive manufacturer.
The Birchenoughs, who were Methodists, were a prominent business family in Macclesfield, and Henry's father, a Liberal, served as mayor of the town in 1876. In common with other silk manufacturing families in Macclesfield Henry Birchenough was engaged in supporting local charities and served variously as the chairman of the Technical School, the School of Art and the "Useful Knowledge Society" in Macclesfield.Sarah Jane Griffiths PHD Thesis Liverpool University 2006
Later in life whilst Chairman of the Beit Railway Trust, Birchenough supported Ruzawi School in Southern Rhodesia. The school named a large dormitory block the Birchenough Building in recognition of the work he had done on behalf of the school, particularly in the field of raising funds for the new buildings.
As well as being a partner in the family silk business Birchenough was also a director of the Imperial Continental Gas Association and of British Exploration of Australia Ltd, and later served as president of the Macclesfield Chamber of Commerce.Volume 1 Tariff Commission Report, Steel industry and trade – England; Textile industry and fabrics, London, 1904
Birchenough became a close friend of Alfred Milner, the future Lord Milner, and the two shared lodgings in London prior to Birchenough's marriage.The Anglo-American Establishment Caroll Quigley 1981 Their friendship was to endure until Milner's death.
Birchenough was a member of the Reform Club, Brooks's,Burke's genealogical and heraldic history of the peerage, baronetage and knightage 1914 page 2172 the Ranelagh, and the City of London Club and served as Upper Bailiff for the Worshipful Company of Weavers from 1934 to 1935. He was also a member of council for the Royal Statistical Society,Who's Who of Southern Africa, 1911 and a councillor for the Royal Colonial Institute. Birchenough was also a Fellow of both the Royal Empire Society and the Royal Geographical Society.
Suffragists and women in society Whilst still at University College, London, Birchenough showed an interest in women's rights, proposing a motion in January 1872 at the age of 19 to the UCL Debating Society, interpreting the debating society's rules as admitting women.Phyllis Deane, The Life and Times of J. Neville Keynes, A beacon in the Tempest, Edward Elgar, Publisher, Page 13. ISBN 978 1840645347 The motion was seconded by John Neville Keynes and carried by 30 to 20.
On 24 March 1877, at the age of 24, having completed his MA, Birchenough appeared alongside Lydia Becker, Alice Cliff Scatcherd (subsequently one of the co-founders of the Women's Franchise League) and other early suffragists to discuss women's access to the vote in Macclesfield. The chairman, J. W. White, addressed the meeting saying that "it appeared somewhat strange that whereas the British Parliament had been engaged from time to time for many years back in conferring rights and removing disabilities, there should still exist any large and intelligent section of society outside the electoral community. They had not yet found any good reason given for excluding from parliamentary suffrage women who had already voted in municipal and school board elections; therefore they intended to reiterate their demands until they were conceded". Birchenough and Scatcherd seconded the first resolution, which was moved by Joshua Oldfield Nicholson. In the same year he is recorded as having given two pounds and two shillings to the Manchester National Society for Women's Suffrage.
Birchenough's immediate family retained links to early women's rights activists and Emily Faithfull served as witness to the marriage of Birchenough's brother William Taylor Birchenough. In her book Three Visits to America, Faithfull writes the following about the Birchenough silk mills:
"No one could desire to see women looking more healthy than the operatives in some of our factories in Manchester, Bradford, and Halifax. I shall long remember going through Messrs. Birchenough's silk mills at Macclesfield. Certainly the occasion was an exceptional one. The eldest son had been married the day before, and the entire place had been decorated by the operatives to commemorate the event. The walls were adorned by appropriate mottoes, even unique representations of the bridal ceremony had been devised, and everything betokened the happy understanding existing there between labor and capital. "
In 1905, Birchenough became a member of the industrial committee of the Victoria League, an Edwardian imperialist women's organisation. Founders of the Victoria League included Violet Markham, Edith Lyttelton, and Violet Cecil. After the death of her husband, Lord Edward Cecil, in 1918, the latter subsequently married Birchenough's friend Lord Alfred Milner in 1921.
Southern and East Africa After the South African War, and at the suggestion of Lord Milner, the British Government sent Birchenough to South Africa as Special Trade Commissioner in 1903 to enquire into prospects for British trade in the country in the aftermath of the war. According to a November 1903 New York Times article, Birchenough was optimistic about the revival of business opportunities for Britain in the country. In South Africa, he also undertook a study of the activities of Britain's main trade rivals, identifying the United States and Germany as being the main competitors in the country. Birchenough also laid out a number of suggestions to be considered to increase the United Kingdom's competitive edge; these and the rest of his report were incorporated into a Blue Book. For this work, he was appointed Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in the 1905 Birthday Honours.
He became a director of the British South Africa Company in 1905 and soon became prominent in the company, being appointed Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) in the 1916 Birthday Honours for services to Rhodesia. He became president of the BSAC in 1925 and held the post until his death. He was appointed chairman of the Rhodesia Railway Company and the Mashonaland Railway Company in 1925 after the death of James Rochfort Maguire and retained the position until his own death.Biography, Who Was Who He was a Director of the Victoria Falls Power Company and the African Concessions Syndicate.The Anglo-African Who's Who and Biographical Sketchbook, 1907 He was also a director of the Rhodesian Anglo American Corporation Ltd under the chairmanship of Ernest Oppenheimer.
Surviving correspondence by Birchenough concerning BSAC affairs with Philip Lyttelton Gell and Alfred Lord Milner is to be found in the papers of the Gell family of Hopton Hall, in the Derbyshire Record Office and in the Alfred Milner, Viscount Milner papers at the Bodleian Library.
In 1924 he was appointed a seat on the East Africa Commission, otherwise known as the Southborough Committee chaired by Francis Hopwood, 1st Baron Southborough. The committee had several tasks including investigating measures to accelerate economic development and coordinate policy and improve health and economic development for the population across several countries in the region. The remit covered Kenya, Uganda, Northern Rhodesia, Nyasaland and Tanganyika.Government Notice 280, Kenya Gazette August 1924
Birchenough was also chairman of the Beit Railway Trust from 1931 until 1937. In 1932 he presented a grant of £50,000 from the Beit Trust to the fledgling Department of Civil Aviation in Colonial era Zimbabwe. In presenting the grant he stated that the trustees has agreed to set aside this sum for two years commencing in 1933 to improve ground services along the Imperial Airways route in the country. In the same year Imperial Airways (Africa) Ltd had just inaugurated a mail and passenger service to England. By 1935 the Rhodesia and Nyasaland Airways (RANA) was providing a regular mail and passenger service to Mozambique, Nyasaland and Northern Rhodesia. The Beit Railway Trust, Rhodesia Railway Company and Imperial Airways all had interests in RANACivil Aviation in Colonial Zimbabwe 1912-1980, AS Mlambo, Department of Economic History, University of Zimbabwe which was itself subsequently incorporated into Central African Airways in 1946.
After his death, Henry Birchenough's ashes were interred in a pillar of the Birchenough Bridge, which had been constructed with the support of the Beit Trust and which spans the Save River in Zimbabwe.
He was appointed Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG) in the 1935 Birthday Honours for services to the British South Africa Company and the Beit Trust.
Contributions to contemporary imperial discourse
Already in the late 1870s Birchenough had shown an interest in social issues concerning women's rights and in 1886 he addressed Macclesfield's Townley Street Mutual Improvement Society with a lecture titled: "The Making of Greater Britain" in which he sought to explain the origins of Britain's empire and to remind the audience of the responsibilities that this entailed.Evolution and the Victorians: Science, Culture and Politics in Darwin's Britain, P129, Jonathan Conlin, Bloomsbury, 2014
Birchenough became close friends with Alfred Milner though an introduction by Leonard Montefiore around 1881;Letter A Milner to Philip Lyttelton Gell, September 28th 1881, Hotel Bar au Lac, Zurich, Derbyshire Record Office, Ref: D3287 MIL/1/104 this friendship was to endure until Milner's death. Milner was best man at Birchenough's marriage in 1886 and prior to this the two of them shared chambers in London.