Charles Frederick White

Charles Frederick White (11 March 1863 – 4 December 1923) was an English boot and shoemaker and Liberal Party politician. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for the Western Division of Derbyshire from 1918 to 1923.

Family and education White was born in Tetbury in Gloucestershire in 1863, the son of Frederick and Ruth White. He was educated privately in Tetbury. In 1881 he married Alice Charlesworth of Bonsall, Derbyshire. They had one son and five daughters. White's son, also called Charles Frederick (1891–1956), inherited his father's political activism, although in the Labour rather than the Liberal interest.

Career White was originally a boot and shoemaker and dealer by trade but he gave this up to go into politics full-time by becoming a registration and political agent for the Liberal Party in the West Derbyshire area. He also acted as agent for Barnet Kenyon, the Derbyshire Miners' Association candidate at Chesterfield.

Politics

Local politics As well as working as a political agent for the Liberal Party, White also went into local government politics. From 1898 to at least 1903 he was a member of Bonsall Urban District Council, while by 1913 he was chairman of the Matlock Bath Urban District Council. He was for four years an elected member of Derbyshire County Council and held the position of magistrate by virtue of being Chairman of a Local Authority. The sitting MP in 1910 was the Earl of Kerry. He had inherited the seat at a by-election in 1908 when he was returned unopposed as a Liberal Unionist. Kerry held the seat against Liberal opposition in January 1910 and then defeated White in December 1910 with a majority of 1,060 votes.

1918

In 1918 however, the world turned upside down. Despite the Earl of Kerry's receiving the Coalition coupon which surely ought to have ensured his victory in such a safe Tory seat, he lost to White by a majority of 2,160 votes.