Sir Charles Solomon Henry, 1st Baronet (28 January 1860 – 27 December 1919) was an Australian merchant and businessman who lived mostly in Britain and sat as a Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons from 1906 until his death.
Family and education Henry was born in Adelaide, AustraliaJohn Grigg, Lloyd George:The People’s Champion, 1902–1911; Penguin Books, 2002 p128 the son of Isaac Henry Solomon and Rose Marks of London, . He was educated at St Marylebone and All Souls Grammar School in connection with King's College London and at the University of Göttingen. On 3 March 1892,The New York Times 3 March 1892, p. 4 he married Julia Lewisohn of New York City,Who was Who, OUP 2007 the daughter of Leonard Lewisohn (1847–1902) a wealthy American mining magnate.Cameron Hazlehurst and Christine Woodland (eds.), A Liberal Chronicle: Journals and Papers of J A Pease, 1908–1910; Historians Press, 1994 p237 They had one son, Cyril, who held a commission in the Worcestershire Regiment (Special Reserve) and who was killed at the battle of Loos in September 1915.The Times, 29 December 1919 p5 Lady Henry endowed a nursery for the children of war workers in his memory.
Religion Henry was Jewish. He participated in Jewish welfare societies and other associations. In 1911, he laid the foundation stone of a synagogue at Southend.The Times, 11 August 1911 p2 He also took a leading role in the financing and organisation of the Soup Kitchen for the Jewish Poor.The Times, 18 October 1913 p4 In 1919 he was a prominent member of the organisation dedicated to the creation of a Jewish War Memorial to take the form of a fund of one million pounds for the endowment of Jewish religious education and the possible erection of a college for Jewish learning at Oxford or Cambridge.The Times, 10 June 1919 p21
Career In 1882, Henry established the firm of C S Henry & Co. of London, metal merchants and copper importersBentley Brinkerhoff Gilbert, David Lloyd George, a political life–Volume I, The Architect of Change; B T Batsford, 1987 p322 of which he became managing director.The Times House of Commons, 1910; Politico's Publishing, 2004 p77 The undertaking was converted into a Limited Liability Company (with authorized capital of £200,000) in April 1902.The Financial Times, 13 May 1902, p.3. The venture was clearly a great success as by 1915 he was being described as a millionaire,A J P Taylor (ed.), Lloyd George: A Diary by Frances Stevenson; Hutchinson, 1971 p74 and Frank Owen a biographer of David Lloyd George, wrote of Henry that he was a self-made man who had made a fortune in South Africa.Frank Owen, Tempestuous Journey: Lloyd George, his Life and Times; Hutchinson, 1954 p134
During the First World War he undertook a number of missions for the government accomplishing important work in the United States of America and Sweden. At his own expense he equipped a private home for wounded soldiers in Berkshire and promoted the welfare of British troops in other ways. Henry also had interests in journalism. He was to become one of the proprietors of the Westminster Gazette and later founded the newspaper the Jewish Guardian. Many prominent Jews opposed the establishment of a Jewish state, fearing this would lead to their co-religionists losing the citizenship of those countries where they and their forebears had long lived and prospered.Frank Owen, Tempestuous Journey: Lloyd George, his Life and Times; Hutchinson, 1954 p427
Politics
Chelmsford
At the general election of 1900, Henry was selected to fight the Chelmsford Division of Essex for the Liberal Party. At the time he was associated with the Liberal Imperialists,The Times, 29 September 1900 p10 a centrist faction within the Liberal Party in the late Victorian and Edwardian periods. The Liberal Imperialists were in favour of a more positive attitude towards the development of the British Empire and Imperialism, ending the primacy of the party's commitment to Irish Home Rule. In domestic affairs they advocated the concept of 'national efficiency'.Iain Sharpe, Entry on Liberal Imperialists in Dictionary of Liberal Thought, Politico's, 2007 pp. 214–216. In May 1901 Henry was elected to the committee of the Imperial Liberal Council.The Daily Record, 18 May 1901, p.5. However Chelmsford was a safe Unionist seat, the previous member having been returned unopposed in 1895 and Henry's opponent was elected with a majority of 3,129 votes.The Times, 9 October 1900 p8
Shropshire MP
By 1905 it had become known that Sir A H Brown, the Liberal Unionist MP for the Wellington Division of Shropshire wished to stand down at the next election.The Times, 18 January 1905 p4 Henry was selected to stand in the constituency at the 1906 general election.The Times, 5 December 1905 p9 His opponent, Hildebrand Harmsworth, had the benefit of the public support of Liberal Unionist leader, Joseph Chamberlain,The Times, 26 January 1906 p3 but Henry secured the support of David Lloyd George to speak in Wellington on his behalf.Frank Owen, Tempestuous Journey: Lloyd George, his Life and Times; Hutchinson, 1954 p146 Henry won the seat with a majority of 1,692 votes.The Times, 26 January 1906 p10 Henry held his seat in a straight fight against the Unionists in January 1910 with a slightly reduced majority of 1,189 votes; and again in December 1910 this time by a majority of 1,118.The Times House of Commons, 1911; Politico's Publishing, 2004 p85 The constituency was abolished for the 1918 general election and Henry switched his candidacy to the newly created seat of The Wrekin when he was returned unopposed as a supporter of the Coalition government.The Times House of Commons, 1919; Politico's Publishing, 2004 p60
Henry and Lloyd George
Both Henry's personal and political lives were intertwined with that of David Lloyd George. When Lloyd George formed his coalition government with the Conservatives in December 1916, Henry was one of those Liberals who stayed on the government sideThe Times, 13 December 1916 p11 and he was generally identified as a strong supporter of the new prime ministerTrevor Wilson, The Downfall of the Liberal Party,1914–1935; Cornell University Press, 1966 pp86, 104 & 114 but there was more than just political affinity between Henry and Lloyd George. Henry and his wife had been close to Lloyd George since at least the time of the death of his daughter Mair in 1907. Henry hosted a trip to Germany for Lloyd George in 1908 to allow Lloyd George, then recently appointed as Chancellor of the Exchequer, to study the invalidity insurance and contributory old age pensions which had been introduced there by Otto von Bismarck twenty-five years before. They also travelled together abroad socially to Nice and Monte CarloDon Cregier, Bounder from Wales: Lloyd George’s Career before the First World War; University of Missouri Press, 1976 p142 and other European destinations.The Times, 25 February 1913 p9The Times, 3 January 1914 p7 The American Lady Henry had pretensions to be one of London's great political hostesses and Lloyd George often attended her functions in London and at their home at Henley-on-Thames, sometimes taking his son Richard with him.Ffion Hague, The Pain and the Privilege: The Women in Lloyd George’s Life; 1919; Harper Press, 2008 p229 Lloyd George also attended Henry family occasions at Henry's London home at Carlton Gardens.The Times, 16 July 1914 p11 It is not known for certain if Lloyd George and Julia Henry had an affair, although one of Lloyd George's biographers states that they did, adding that it was not serious on Lloyd George's part.John Grigg, Lloyd George War Leader 1916–1918; Penguin Books, 2002 p79 However they certainly flirted together and corresponded privately with each other. Richard Lloyd George apparently thought his father could be in love with the "dark, tall and very attractive Lady J".Richard Lloyd George, Lloyd George; Frederick Muller Ltd, 1960 pp107-108 and that they were having an affair. Even King Edward VII was concerned that there had been a lot of gossip about Lady Julia and Lloyd George and this may have delayed her husband's getting his knighthood.Cameron Hazlehurst and Christine Woodland (eds.), A Liberal Chronicle: Journals and Papers of J A Pease, 1908–1910; Historians Press, 1994 p102 Frances Stevenson certainly believed that Lloyd George had not only been close to Lady Henry but that Lady Henry herself was clearly in love with him, describing her as 'quite mad' about him. After Frances Stevenson started working for Lloyd George in 1911 and he began to become attracted to her, Lloyd George determined to stop any dalliance with Julia Henry. She was distressed by what she saw as a public snub and fled back to America, writing to her husband that she never wanted to be alone with Lloyd George again. It seems unlikely that Henry himself was aware of anything going on from Lloyd George's side. If anything he seems to have thought it was all in his wife's mind and believed she was exaggerating their relationship. It is also clear that Lady Henry's hurt feelings had a lot to do with the damage Lloyd George's rejection could do to her reputation as a political hostess.Ffion Hague, The Pain and the Privilege: The Women in Lloyd George’s Life; 1919; Harper Press, 2008 p230-231 Some reconciliation was affected in 1915 when Lloyd George visited the Henrys to show sympathy on the loss of their son in battle even though he was reluctant to do so because of the awkwardness arising from his previous relationship with Lady Henry and the strength of Julia Henry's feelings for him. Lloyd George also visited Henry when he was ill and dying in 1919, despite Lady Henry's making a scene and her trying to use his visits to her advantage with other members of the social set.Ffion Hague, The Pain and the Privilege: The Women in Lloyd George’s Life; 1919; Harper Press, 2008 p232 However the final breach with Lady Julia came the year after Henry's death in recriminations over Lloyd George's alleged misuse of £20,000 donated by American friends of the Henrys for British war charities.Cameron Hazlehurst and Christine Woodland (eds.), A Liberal Chronicle: Journals and Papers of J A Pease, 1908–1910; Historians Press, 1994 p238
Political orientation Henry appears to have stayed on the right of the Liberal Party throughout his political career. He was a member of the Council of the British Empire League.The Times, 28 November 1912 p8 On one of the main policy questions of the day, he was opposed to the idea of votes for women being a member of the National League for Opposing Women's Suffrage.The Times, 21 January 1913 p6 When the Bill making women eligible for election to Parliament was going through the House of Commons in 1918, Henry moved an amendment to ensure they should not be able to stand for Parliament until they had reached the age of 30 years, the same age as voting eligibility.The Times, 6 November 1918 p8 He also favoured conscription, campaigning for it before its formal introduction during the war, being a signatory to the National Service Manifesto published in August 1915.The Times, 17 August 1915 p7
Honours and appointments In the New Years Honours list for 1911, Henry became a baronet with the creation of the Henry Baronetcy, of Parkwood in the County of Berkshire.The Times, 2 January 1911 p10 He also served as a Justice of the Peace for Berkshire.The Times, 11 April 1914 p5