The plaque reads:
On the edge:
"London County Council"
In the centre:
"William / Huskisson / 1770 - 1830 / Statesman / lived here".
The plaque is in excellent condition and looks to have been recently cleaned.
Huskisson is more famously known in that on 15 September, he became the first railway fatality. The accident occurred at the official opening of the Manchester to Liverpool railway line.
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William Huskisson was born at Birch Moreton Court, Warwickshire on 11th March 1770. After a private education in England he was sent to Paris to live with his uncle, Dr. Gem, the physician to the British Embassy. By 1790 Huskisson was asked by Lord Gower, the British Ambassador in France, to become his private secretary. In this post Huskisson met William Pitt, the British prime minister.
Huskisson returned to England in 1792 and after Pitt introduced him to George Canning, he was asked to become secretary to the admiralty. Huskisson met Lord Carlisle who offered him the opportunity to become the MP for Morpeth. Elected as a Tory in 1796, Huskisson did not speak in the House of Commons until February 1798. On the death of Dr. Gem in 1800, Huskisson inherited his estates in Worcestershire and Sussex. Huskisson was now financially secure and could concentrate of a political career.
Huskisson was defeated in the 1802 General Election and had to wait until February 1804 before he was elected as MP for Liskeard. When William Pitt became Prime Minister in May 1804, he appointed Huskisson as his secretary to the treasury. Huskisson returned to the back-benches when Pitt resigned from office in January 1806. Huskisson took a keen interest in financial matters and in 1810 he published Depreciation of the Currency. This pamphlet helped Huskisson achieve a reputation as one of Britain's leading economists.
In 1812 Huskisson was elected to represent Chichester in Sussex. Huskisson made several speeches on financial issues and in March 1813 called for changes in the taxation of imports. The following year Huskisson entered the government of Lord Liverpool and was given responsibility for the proposed corn laws. In 1815 Parliament passed a Corn Law which prohibited the importation of corn when the price fell below a certain minimum average.
William Huskisson rarely spoke in the House of Commons on matters other than those dealing with the economy. He voted for Catholic Emancipation but did not take part in any of the debates on the issue. Despite the strong opposition to the Corn Laws, Huskisson remained convinced that they were needed to protect Britain's farmers. In February 1822, Huskisson spoke against government plans to spend £4,000,000 on agricultural distress.
Huskisson entered the cabinet in April 1822 when Lord Liverpool appointed him as President of the Board of Trade. The following year Huskisson became MP for Liverpool. Huskisson worked closely with the merchants from the city and soon developed a reputation as the leading representative of mercantile interests in Parliament. This was reflected in the drafting and passing of several new bills that related to trade, including the Merchant Vessels' Apprenticeship Act and the Registration of Ships Act. Huskisson also took measures towards a policy of free trade. He reduced duties on cotton, sugar, glass, paper, bottles, copper, zinc and lead.
Although Huskisson admitted in debate that he was having doubts about duties on corn, he advocated a delay in their repeal. He finally introduced new measures to reform the Corn Laws in 1826 but the bill was abandoned after the opposition of the Duke of Wellington and other leading Tories in the House of Lords.
When the Duke of Wellington became Prime Minister in 1828, Huskisson refused to serve under him and resigned from office. Huskisson became unpopular with some members of the Tory Party when he made a speech in the House of Commons claiming that Wellington had forced him to leave the government.
Huskisson now became of the main reformers in the Tory Party. He advocated Catholic Emancipation and supported Lord John Russell, the leader of the Whig reformers, calls for Leeds and Manchester to be represented in the House of Commons.
Huskisson also supported the building of railways and in 1830 was invited by the directors of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway to attend the official opening on 15th September. After the guests were given a ride on the Northumbrian, Huskisson, crossed from his own carriage to speak to the Duke of Wellington. Warnings were shouted when people realised that the Rocket, driven by Joseph Locke, was about to pass the Northumbrian. Huskisson was unable to escape and was knocked down by the Rocket. The locomotive badly mangled one of his legs. A doctor attempted to stem the bleeding and George Stephenson used the Northumbrian to take him for further treatment. Despite these attempts to save him, Huskisson died later that day.
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The Death of William Huskisson
On 15 September, Huskisson became the first railway fatality. The accident occurred at the official opening of the Manchester to Liverpool line. Thomas Creevey spoke to an eye-witness to the event and wrote the following account.
Bangor, 19 September 1830
Jack Calcraft has been at the opening of the Liverpool rail road, and was an eye witness of Huskisson's horrible death. About nine or ten of the passengers in the Duke's car had got out to look about them, whilst the car stopt [sic]. Calcraft was one, Huskisson another, Esterhazy, Bill Holmes, Birch and others. When the other locomotive was seen coming up to pass them, there was a general shout from those within the Duke's car to those without it, to get in. Both Holmes and Birch were unable to get up in time, but they stuck fast to its sides, and the other engine did not touch them. Esterhazy being light, was pulled in by force. Huskisson was feeble in his legs, and appears to have lost his head, as he did his life. Calcraft tells me that Huskisson's long confinement in St George's Chapel at the king's funeral brought on a complaint that Taylor is so afraid of, and that made some severe surgical operation necessary, the effect of which had been, according to what he told Calcraft, to paralyse, as it were one leg and thigh. This, no doubt, must have increased, if it did not create, his danger and [caused him to] lose his life. He had written to say his health would not let him come, and his arrival was unexpected. Calcraft saw the meeting between him and the Duke, and saw them shake hands a very short time before Huskisson's death. The latter event must be followed by important political consequences. The Canning faction has lost its corner stone and the Duke's government one of its most formidable opponents. Huskisson, too, once out of the way, Palmerston, Melbourne, the Grants & Co. may make it up with the Beau [Wellington].
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