Samuel Laing (politician)

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Samuel Laing 1860

Samuel Laing , DL ( December 12, 1812 in Edinburgh , † August 6, 1897 in Sydenham ) was a British politician, railroad administrator and non-fiction author.

Life

Laing was born in Edinburgh in 1812 as the eldest son of the writer and politician Samuel Laing and his wife Agnes . He is thus nephew of the historian and writer Malcolm Laing . He attended a private school in Houghton-le-Spring, England, and then studied law at St John's College , Cambridge . After graduating with a bachelor's degree in 1832, Laing joined the Lincoln's Inn Bar Association . After he obtained his master’s degree in 1835 , he was admitted to the bar in 1937.

In 1841 Laing married his wife Mary . Between 1842 and 1846 he worked in the "Railway" department of the Trade Committee. In 1845 he was also a member of the Railway Commission. Twice, first between 1848 and 1855, then between 1867 and 1894, Laing was chairman of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway . Furthermore, Laing was one of the nine businessmen who founded the Crystal Palace Company and bought the Crystal Palace . Laing presided over the company. He was also chairman of the General Credit and Finance Company and vice chairman of the Great Eastern Railway . Laing died in 1897 in his home in Sydenham, London.

Political career

In the general election in 1852 , Laing ran for the Liberal Party in the constituency of Wick Burghs . He won the mandate and subsequently moved into the British House of Commons for the first time . In the subsequent elections in 1857 , Laing lost his mandate, only to regain it in the 1859 elections. Between 1859 and 1860 Laing held the position of State Secretary for Finance. In 1860 he was appointed finance minister for the colony of India and gave up his mandate for Wick Burghs. After his return to the United Kingdom , he ran again for Wick Burghs in the following general election in 1865 and won the mandate one more time. In the general election in 1868, Laing was defeated by his opponent George Loch and initially left the lower house.

After the death of Liberal MP Frederick Dundas in the winter of 1872, by-elections were required in the constituency of Orkney and Shetland . Laing joined these and won the mandate. In the following general election in 1880 , he defended his mandate for Orkney and Shetland. Laing did not run for the general election in 1885 . The constituency's mandate went to his party colleague Leonard Lyell .

Fonts

  • Railway taxation. Vacher & Sons, Westminster 1849.
  • Modern science and modern thought. Chapman & Hall, London 1885.
  • A modern Zoroastrian. FV White & Co., London 1887.
  • Human Origins. Chapman & Hall, London 1893.
  • Problems of the future and essays. Chapman & Hall, London 1893.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e S. Laing (Orkney and Shetland) . In: Robert Henry Mair (ed.): Debrett's House of Commons . Dean & Son, London 1881, p. 131 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
  2. ↑ a b c d Laing, Samuel . In: John Archibald Venn (Ed.): Alumni Cantabrigienses . A Biographical List of All Known Students, Graduates and Holders of Office at the University of Cambridge, from the Earliest Times to 1900. Part 2: From 1752 to 1900 , Volume 4 : Kahlenberg – Oyler . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1951, pp. 77 ( venn.lib.cam.ac.uk Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
  3. ^ Robert Henry Mair (Ed.): Debrett's House of Commons . Dean & Son, London 1870, p. 366 ( Text Archive - Internet Archive - Results of the General Election 1868 - Wick District).
  4. ^ Robert Henry Mair (Ed.): Debrett's House of Commons . Dean & Son, London 1881, p. 292 ( Text Archive - Internet Archive - Results of the General Election 1880 - Orkney and Shetland).

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Laing, Samuel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British politician, railroad administrator and non-fiction author
DATE OF BIRTH December 12, 1812
PLACE OF BIRTH Edinburgh
DATE OF DEATH August 6, 1897
Place of death Sydenham (now part of London )