James Bailey

Sir James Bailey, (10 November 1840 – 12 October 1910) was a British businessman and Conservative politician who served from 1895 to 1906 as Member of Parliament (MP) for Walworth in South London. He was also a successful hotel developer, most notably for establishing the Bailey's Hotel in Kensington, and the founder of a London gentlemen's club, the Constitutional Club. Baileys Irish Cream is named for the hotel that bears his name.

Early years Bailey was born in 1840 (on 10 or 15 November) in Mattishall, Norfolk. According to the parish register, he was baptized there on 12 March 1843, son of William Bailey, a labourer, and Sarah (née Dunthron). William Bailey was also known to be a farmer of Mill Road (later Kensington House).

He received his education at Dereham Grammar School. Moving to London in 1860 at the age of twenty, he was initially employed as a butler.

Career

Bailey's early years in business involved taking a small hotel in Gloucester Road, London, probably the Harrington Hotel, although Bailey's name is not on record. He established the hotel that bears his name in Kensington in 1876, one of the earliest privately funded hotels in London. In 1894, after Bailey sold his hotels to Spiers and Pond Limited, he became managing director, a position he retained until 1898.He served on the boards of Harrods and D. H. Evans, as a Kensington vestryman (town councilor) from 1878 to 1894, as Deputy Lieutenant for Norfolk, and in 1895, Bailey became a Justice of the peace in Essex. Bailey was re-elected at the general election in July 1895, and again in 1900, but lost his seat to a Liberal candidate, Charles James O'Donnell, at the 1906 general election and did not stand for Parliament again. He had three sons, Percy James Bailey (Lieut. 12th Royal Lancers), Frederick George Glyn Bailey, Sidney Robert Bailey (Admiral, K.B.E., C.B., D.S.O.; commander Battlecruiser Squadron (United Kingdom) 1934–1936; lived 1882–1942), and three daughters, Alice, Augusta Dunthorne Bailey (1872–1949) who married Vivian Nickalls (1871-1947), and Marie Elizabeth. Between 1878 and 1894, Bailey was active as a Kensington vestryman and People's Churchwarden. Bailey retained an affinity for his childhood home town, Mattishall, as, in 1894, he donated a church organ to All Saints' Church Mattishall in memory of his mother. and died five years later, aged 69, at his London home, 58 Rutland Gate, leaving an estate valued at £245,000.