John Passmore Edwards

John Passmore Edwards (24 March 1823 – 22 April 1911) was a British journalist, newspaper owner, and philanthropist who briefly served as a Liberal Party Member of Parliament.

Early life According to his autobiography Passmore Edwards was born in Blackwater, a small village between Redruth and Truro in Cornwall, England. He had three brothers, William, Richard and James. His father was a Cornishman, a brewer by trade. His mother's maiden name was Passmore, and she had been born in Newton Abbot, Devon.

He reported that in his youth there were few books available to him, and they were mostly theological in nature. At age twelve, the first book he managed to purchase for himself was Newton's Opticks, and he declared that he "was just as wise at the end as I was at the beginning of reading it". of The Building News and Architectural Journal.

In 1893 Francis Hughes-Hallett (a former MP who had defeated Passmore Edwards at Rochester in 1885) filed a lawsuit against Passmore Edwards and Kibblewhite, as proprietor and editor/printer of The Weekly Times and Echo, over an article in the paper that poked fun at his widely reported adultery. The article, published in the issue of 29 May 1892, included the linesIt is reported that Colonel Hughes-Hallett, formerly M.P. for Rochester, is going to honour the new Parliament with his presence if he can get returned. He should stand with Sir Charles Dilke for some double-barrelled constituency, where the electors are not particular, and then we should have a suitable champion of purity on each side of the House, in view of eventualities, Hallett and Dilke! Sodom and Gomorrah might have been proud of such a distinguished pair of representatives. Hughes-Hallett claimed that the comparison of him to disgraced former MP Sir Charles Dilke and to say that the two should run together for the constituency of "Sodom and Gomorrah" constituted libel driven by personal malice. The defendants argued that since the press had already covered Hughes-Hallett's affairs extensively, they were not doing additional harm to his reputation. The jury found for the defendants.

Politics He was a delegate to the International Peace Congresses in Brussels, Paris and Frankfurt (from 1848 to 1850). He stood as a Liberal candidate for Truro in the general election of 1868 but was not elected. In the 1880 general election he gained a parliamentary seat in the two-member Salisbury constituency as a Liberal. Salisbury was reduced to one MP by the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 and in the 1885 general election he stood unsuccessfully as a Liberal in Rochester.

He became somewhat sceptical about the quality of professional politics and the inability of politicians to effectively represent the interests of their constituents, and his opposition to the Second Boer War lost him some popularity.

He twice refused a knighthood.

Philanthropy

A lifelong champion of the working classes, Passmore Edwards is remembered as a generous benefactor. Over the space of 14 years, 70 major buildings were established as a direct result of his bequests. These included hospitals, 11 drinking fountains, 32 marble busts, 24 libraries,

In 1898 Passmore Edwards donated substantially to the Essex Local and Educational Museum of Natural History, which was later named the Passmore Edwards Museum.

He also gave money to many hospitals including the Passmore Edwards District Cottage Hospital, next to Tilbury Dock, Essex, where he built a ward which was named after him. Wards in Wembley Cottage Hospital and Willesden General were also named after him. He also donated his earnings to a fountain in Hoxton Square, Shoreditch, London. This fountain is regularly frequented by the local community and is considered a historical landmark in an area that finds itself becoming detached from its history.

Passmore Edwards was a leading Freemason, and a founder in 1906 of the Standard Chapter of Improvement, which sought to simplify and unify the incoherent rituals of the Holy Royal Arch degree. He was a teetotaller and vegetarian.

Legacy Many of the buildings that he paid for are still in use for their original purpose. A bust of Passmore Edwards by Sir George Frampton was rescued from the basement of Hoxton Library and unveiled in May 2007 at the Passmore Edwards Library in St Ives, Cornwall.

As well as London libraries such as at East Dulwich and Edmonton, he gave the public library buildings in Devon at Newton Abbot and in Cornwall at Bodmin, Camborne, Falmouth, Launceston, Liskeard, Penzance, Redruth, St Ives and Truro.

The Passmore Edwards Public Library in Shepherd's Bush, London, is now the home of the Bush Theatre, which moved there in October 2011.

The Passmore Edwards Public Library in Borough Road, London, has been refurbished by London South Bank University and houses the university's apprenticeships and a coffee shop.

The Epilepsy Society's main administrative office is sited at Passmore Edwards House, a Grade II listed building in Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire.

The Passmore Edwards Centre in Newton Abbot was erected 1902-1904 in memory of Passmore Edwards' mother.

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