Henry Dunckley

Background

Henry Dunckley was born in Warwick on the 24th of December 1823.

Education

Henry Dunckley was educated at the Baptist college at Accrington, Lancashire, and at the University of Glasgow.

Career

Henry became in 1848 minister of the Baptist church at Salford, Lancashire. In 1855 he abandoned the ministry to edit the Manchester Examiner and Times, a prominent Liberal newspaper, in charge of which he remained till 1889.

For twenty years he wrote, over the signature “Verax, ” weekly letters to the Manchester papers; those on The Crown and the Cabinet (1877) and The Crown and the Constitution (1878) evoked so much enthusiasm that a public subscription was set on foot to present the writer with a handsome testimonial for his public services. In 1878 Dunckley, who had often declined to stand for parliament, was elected a member of the Reform Club in recognition of his services to the Liberal party.

Achievements

• Henry Dunckley closely investigated the educational needs of the working-classes, and in 1851 he wrote his prominent essay, "The Glory and the Shame of Britain". The work was summarizing the results of his inquiries. The essay won a prize offered by the Religious Tract Society.
  
  In 1852 he won the Anti-Corn-law League’s prize with an essay on the results of the free-trade policy, published in 1854 under the title "The Charter of the Nations".

Works

• book

  • Bamford's Passages in the Life of a Radical, and Early Days - Scholar's Choice Edition

Membership

In 1878 Dunckley, who had often declined to stand for parliament, was elected a member of the Reform Club in recognition of his services to the Liberal party, and in 1883 he was made an Doctor of Laws by Glasgow University.

References

• Henry Dunckley (Classic Reprint)