Horatio Myer was a British businessman, iron trades manufacturer and later, Liberal politician.
Background
Horatio Myer was born on 7 June 1850 in Bye Street, Hereford. Horatio"s father was a German Jewish immigrant, Abraham Myer, who was a pawnbroker, jeweller, silversmith and watchmaker. His mother was Hannah Myer (née Jones): the family lived in Bye Street.
Career
Myer married Esther Joseph on 28 November 1877. They had four sons and by 1891 they were well off enough to have a house in Paddington with a visiting German governess, a cook and a housemaid. At the age of nineteen Myer went to work in the wool trade.
He then moved to London and in 1876 set up a business in Vauxhall producing iron and brass bedsteads, iron cots and bed chairs.
By 1914 the company employed over 200 workers. Myer also expanded his business interests over the years to include corn and forage and wine merchandising.
Politically, Myer may have been influenced by his father, who naturalised as a British citizen and became a town councillor. In 1889 Myer was elected to the London County Council for Kennington and served until 1904.
At the general election of 1906, he was elected as Liberal Member of Parliament for Lambeth North, a Liberal gain from the Unionists.
In fact Naoroji decided to stand in Lambeth North as an independent Liberal but did not split the vote badly enough to cost Myer the seat. Despite heading the poll in Lambeth North in 1906, Myer was unable to hold the seat at the general election of January 1910. Myer took an interest in fiscal policy, publishing a pamphlet on "of Landlords’ but it is known that that fiscal reform was an issue taken up by his Conservative opponent in the 1906 election.
One of the questions Myer raised early in the new Parliament was the treatment of Zulu prisoners in Natal and whether they were to be forced to work as diamond miners.
He was also interested in employment issues, co-authoring a letter to the Times on 4 May 1907 suggesting new ways of reducing unemployment. Myer was prominent in Jewish affairs
He supported the activities of the Jewish Historical Society and was one time warden of Bayswater Synagogue. At some point after 1901 he was appointed a Justice of the Peace.
Myer died on Saturday 1 January 1916.
Membership
28th United Kingdom Parliament.