Sir Arthur Arnold was a British Liberal politician and author
Background
He was the third son of Robert Coles Arnold, a justice of the peace of Framfield, Sussex, and was the younger brother of the poet, Edwin Arnold, and was born in Gravesend, Kent He was educated privately and trained as a surveyor and land agent.
Career
In 1861 he was involved in the surveying operations prior to the construction of the Thames Embankment. Two years later he was appointed under Public (Manufacturing Districts) Acting as an Assistant Commissioner (and later Inspector) of Public in Lancashire, during the Cotton Famine, and subsequently wrote A History of the Cotton Famine. In his spare time he was a writer, and published two "sensation" novels: Ralph, or Street Sepulchre"s and Street Stephen"s (1863) and Hever Court (1867).
He made a tour of southern and eastern Europe in 1867, and became a strong supporter of the Kingdom of Greece a position he set out in From the Levant.
In 1873 he was awarded the Golden Cross of the Order of the Saviour of Greece. They had no children.
In 1873 was an unsuccessful candidate for a by-election at Huntingdon. He published an account of the thousand-mile journey in 1877 as Through Persia by Caravan.
In 1878 he published a collection of his political writings as Social Politics.
The Redistribution of Seats Acting 1885 split the parliamentary borough of Salford into three single-member divisions, and Arnold stood unsuccessfully for the new Salford North constituency in 1885 and 1886. At the 1892 general election he stood at Dorset North, but again failed to be elected. On the creation of the London County Council in 1889, Arnold was elected as a county alderman, and was chairman of the council from 1895 to 1897.
He was knighted in 1895.
He was also a Deputy Lieutenant and Justice of the Peace for the County of London, and a Board of Trade Harbour Commissioner and Justice of the Peace for Dartmouth. He beliefs were reflected in his presidency of the Free Land League and his membership of the London Anti-Vivisection Society.
Sir Arthur Arnold died suddenly at his Kensington, London, home in May 1902, aged 68.
Membership
22nd United Kingdom Parliament]
He was a member of the Radical faction of the Liberal Party, and in 1868 was the first editor of The Echo, a Liberal evening paper. In 1880 he was elected as one of two members of parliament for Salford, with the Liberals gaining both seats at the expense of the Conservatives.