Edward Pickersgill

"Bethnal Green". Caricature by Spy published in Vanity Fair in 1888. Edward Hare Pickersgill (1850 – 13 October 1911) was an English Liberal Party politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1885 to 1911.

Biography Pickersgill was the son of Thomas Pickersgill, an architect of York. He was educated at York Grammar School before entering employment at age 18 as a clerk in Savings Bank Department of the Post Office, remaining there until 1885.

At the 1885 general election Pickersgill was elected Member of Parliament for Bethnal Green South West. He was regarded as being on the Radical wing of the Liberal Party, and campaigned for reform of criminal law, in particular seeking to end imprisonment for non-payment of debt. He also sought the abolition of the death penalty and the ending of flogging as a punishment. At the "khaki" general election of 1900 he lost his seat to a Unionist opponent, but regained it six years later when there was a swing to the Liberals.

In October 1911, he contracted pneumonia and died at his sister's house in Putney, on 13 October 1911, aged 61.