Arnold Lupton

Professor Arnold Lupton (11 September 1846 – 23 May 1930) was a British Liberal Party Member of Parliament, academic, mining engineer and a managing director (collieries). He was jailed for pacifist activity during World War One.

Arnold was the son of Arthur Lupton (1817–1881) and Elizabeth Wicksteed. Arnold's father, Arthur Lupton Junior, was a Unitarian minister. Arthur Lupton Junior was the son of Arthur Lupton Senior (1782-1824) who had belonged to the prosperous mercantile, political and landowning Lupton family of Leeds. The family of Arthur Junior were living at Headingley in the 1840s, as were many of their Lupton relatives. Arnold's mother was sister to the Rev. Charles Wicksteed, who had recently arrived as minister to Mill Hill Chapel on Leeds City Square and had married Jane Lupton, sister to Arthur. Both the Wicksteed siblings were described as "Unitarians of vigorous mind and keen intelligence". Through Charles and Jane, Arnold had several first cousins of note: Janet, who wrote, as Mrs Lewis, a memoir including her parents; Philip, the economist and Unitarian theologian; Hartley, president of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers; and Charles, also an engineer, who bequeathed Wicksteed Park to the people of Kettering. He also had numerous Lupton relatives making their marks on the country in education, business, and politics.

Lupton was professor of mining at Leeds University until 1905. Concurrent with both his academic and parliamentary career — i.e., from the late 19th century until the 1920s — Lupton was Managing Director of several U.K. mining companies/syndicates. In 1904, the press reported that his name was "largely identified with collieries in England" and beyond. Between 1910 and 1916, Lupton was a business associate of George Monckton-Arundell, 7th Viscount Galway. Forming the Northern Union Mining Company Limited, Lupton leased land from the Viscount's coal-rich estates. Along with Galway and others, Lupton gained enormous financial benefits from this mining syndicate. During the war, Parliament passed a Trading with the Enemy Act - Lupton's business dealings with Germany, particularly the industrialist and politician Herr Stinnes, were leaked to the British press and caused great concern

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Lupton was, according to C.A. Lupton's family history, "The Achilles of the Leeds Complete Suffrage Association"- in other words, a tragic champion of the fight for universal suffrage; see Chartism and Henry Vincent for more on the CSA. Whilst an MP he had the opportunity to register his support for universal suffrage by voting for the 1908 Women's Enfranchisement Bill. However, he neither spoke nor voted in the debate. He was a supporter of Free Trade and laissez-faire economics.

He was elected in 1906 as the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Sleaford division of Lincolnshire, defeating the Conservative MP Henry Chaplin who had represented Sleaford and its predecessor seat since 1868.

His recorded parliamentary debates and international press reports highlight his often strained relationship with Prime Minister H. H. Asquith and opposition leader Arthur Balfour – over issues such as compulsory vaccination and conscription, the union of South Africa and Asquith's Land Tax policy (1912). As late as 1926, parliamentary records show Lupton agitating the then Minister of Health, Neville Chamberlain, to abolish compulsory vaccination. A prolific writer, these issues were the impetus for much correspondence between Lupton and fellow Liberal MPs, including Winston Churchill, and campaigners such as Bertrand Russell. Lupton's political views were not always appreciated, even by his fellow parliamentarians. In 1909, George V, (then Prince of Wales), was "in the gallery when Professor Arnold Lupton got to his feet to speak". Although the Prince remained to listen to Lupton's speech, the press reported that, "so great was the turmoil of men rushing to the lobby that it was impossible to hear what the member of Sleaford was saying". Lupton was defeated at the January 1910 election by the Conservative Edmund Royds.

He did not contest the December 1910 General Election when Royds was returned unopposed. He was opposed to Britain's participation in World War One. During the war he received a prison sentence for activities considered prejudicial to recruiting. This was reported in The New York Times as six months' imprisonment for printing and distributing pacifist leaflets. Alongside Liberal Home Secretary, Herbert Gladstone, 1st Viscount Gladstone, Lupton was an associate of the Balkan Committee which had been founded in 1906 by Radical Liberal Cabinet Minister James Bryce, 1st Viscount Bryce.

On 24 October 1917, a "secret and crime special notice" by the Omagh Royal Irish Constabulary was issued requesting that a "discreet watch be kept on Sir Arnold Lupton" as a result of Lupton's well known anti-conscription views.

Lupton was a teetotaller and a supporter of the temperance movement, i.e. abolishing alcohol."

After the war, Lupton decided to contest Plaistow at the 1918 General Election and presented himself to the electorate as a 'Liberal and Temperance' candidate. His decision to stand here may have been influenced by the fact that his Labour opponent had been an out-spoken supporter of the War and a supporter of conscription, which had placed him at odds with his local party. However, Lupton failed to gain any backing from local organised labour or from the official Liberal Party and he was beaten heavily, winning only 5.1% of the votes.

After the war, the coalition government was attacked from the right by politicians and newspaper proprietors advocating retrenchment policies and opposition to what they described as government waste. Lupton had some sympathy with this view. When the Westminster Abbey by-election occurred in 1921, he was selected as the Liberal Party candidate and was happy to present himself to the electorate as the 'Liberal and Anti-waste' candidate. However, both his opponents also sought to present themselves in this way. The by-election featured no candidate prepared to support the Coalition government. Although finishing third, Lupton exceeded all expectations by polling 3,053 votes, comfortably the highest vote ever polled by a Liberal in either Westminster division.

He did not stand for parliament again. Lupton was well-known on the international stage, regularly visiting the United States of America, India, Ireland, Australia and other countries as a lecturer on mining and a political campaigner. The New York Times reported in 1906 that this "celebrated parliamentarian" had plans to rid London of its famous smog.

After Lupton's death in 1930, aged 83, the press reported the various requests of his will; a portion of his substantial estate was to be given to the National Liberal Club – at which, as a member, he had often given lectures  – and a luncheon was to be given to his mourners.