31 Facts About Henry Birchenough

Sir John Henry Birchenough, 1st Baronet, was an English businessman and public servant.

Henry Birchenough was educated firstly at Strathmore House, Southport, then subsequently at the University of Oxford, University College, London.

Latterly Henry Birchenough attended the Ecole Libre des Sciences Politiques, Paris.

In common with other silk manufacturing families in Macclesfield Henry Birchenough was engaged in supporting local charities and served variously as the chairman of the Technical School, the School of Art and the "Useful Knowledge Society" in Macclesfield.

Later in life whilst Chairman of the Beit Railway Trust, Henry Birchenough supported Ruzawi School in Southern Rhodesia.

The school named a large dormitory block the Henry Birchenough Building in recognition of the work he had done on behalf of the school, particularly in the field of raising funds for the new buildings.

Henry Birchenough became a close friend of Alfred Milner, the future Lord Milner, and the two shared lodgings in London prior to Henry Birchenough's marriage.

Henry Birchenough was a member of council for the Royal Statistical Society, and a councillor for the Royal Colonial Institute.

Henry Birchenough was a Fellow of both the Royal Empire Society and the Royal Geographical Society.

Whilst still at University College, London, Henry Birchenough showed an interest in women's rights, proposing a motion in January 1872 at the age of 19 to the UCL Debating Society, interpreting the debating society's rules as admitting women.

On 24 March 1877, at the age of 24, having completed his MA, Henry Birchenough appeared alongside Lydia Becker, Alice Cliff Scatcherd and other early suffragists to discuss women's access to the vote in Macclesfield.

In 1905, Henry Birchenough became a member of the industrial committee of the Victoria League, an Edwardian imperialist women's organisation.

Henry Birchenough laid out a number of suggestions to be considered to increase the United Kingdom's competitive edge; these and the rest of his report were incorporated into a Blue Book.

Henry Birchenough became a director of the British South Africa Company in 1905 and soon became prominent in the company, being appointed Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George in the 1916 Birthday Honours for services to Rhodesia.

Henry Birchenough became president of the BSAC in 1925 and held the post until his death.

Henry Birchenough was appointed chairman of the Rhodesia Railway Company and the Mashonaland Railway Company in 1925 after the death of James Rochfort Maguire and retained the position until his own death.

Henry Birchenough was a Director of the Victoria Falls Power Company and the African Concessions Syndicate.

Henry Birchenough was a director of the Rhodesian Anglo American Corporation Ltd under the chairmanship of Ernest Oppenheimer.

Henry Birchenough was chairman of the Beit Railway Trust from 1931 until 1937.

Henry Birchenough was appointed Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George in the 1935 Birthday Honours for services to the British South Africa Company and the Beit Trust.

Already in the late 1870s Henry Birchenough had shown an interest in social issues concerning women's rights and in 1886 he addressed Macclesfield's Townley Street Mutual Improvement Society with a lecture titled: "The Making of Greater Britain" in which he sought to explain the origins of Britain's empire and to remind the audience of the responsibilities that this entailed.

Henry Birchenough became close friends with Alfred Milner though an introduction by Leonard Montefiore around 1881; this friendship was to endure until Milner's death.

Together with Milner, Henry Birchenough was a member of the Coefficients dining club, founded at a dinner given by Sidney and Beatrice Webb in September 1902, and which was a forum for the meeting of British socialist reformers, Tories and imperialists of the Edwardian era.

Henry Birchenough held Liberal Unionist views and published an article entitled "Mr Chamberlain as an Empire Builder", in the periodical Nineteenth Century and After in 1902.

Henry Birchenough contributed to two compilations of essays and lectures in the pre-First World War period regarding imperial thinking.

Henry Birchenough worked with the Board of Trade during the First World War, chairing the After the War Textiles Committee from 1916, the Royal Commission on Paper from 1917, and the Committee on Cotton Growing in the Empire from 1917, and sitting on the Central Committee of Materials Supply and the Committee on Commercial and Industrial Policy under Lord Balfour of Burleigh from 1916.

Henry Birchenough was a government director of the British Dyestuffs Corporation.

In 1900, Henry Birchenough joined with Thomas Coglan Horsfall to instigate the Patriotic Association of Macclesfield, which was envisaged as a feeder for the local Volunteer Force.

In 1915, Henry Birchenough was a signatory with a number of other "distinguished men of all parties" including Admiral Lord Charles Beresford of a manifesto which appeared in the Morning Post calling for a "complete and organised effort to carry on the war requiring all men to either fight or be available for national service at home".

Henry Birchenough married Mabel Charlotte, third daughter of George Granville Bradley, Dean of Westminster in December 1886.

Henry Birchenough had two daughters, Sylvia and Elizabeth, but no sons, and the baronetcy became extinct on his death.