Schnadhorst, Francis

Francis Schnadhorst was born in Birmingham in 1840 and was educated at King Edward's School. He entered political life in his twenties and in 1870 was appointed as secretary of the Central Nonconformist Committee. In 1873 he became secretary to the Birmingham Liberal Association. As a result of the success of the Liberals in the parliamentary, school board and municipal elections in Birmingham, due to Schnadhorst's skills, other representative liberal associations were formed throughout the country.

In 1877, Schnadhorst was instrumental in the establishment of the National Liberal Federation and became its first secretary. This Federation, which was set up for educational and propagandist purposes and co-ordinated the work of the several hundred Liberal associations in England and Wales, became a great political force and was largely responsible for Liberal victories of 1880, 1885 and 1892. In recognition of his services to the Liberal Party, he was presented with 10,000 guineas and an address at a banquet in 1887 which followed the removal of the National Liberal Federation from Birmingham to London. Schnadhorst also served as secretary to the Central Liberal Association and, by virtue of holding these two posts, was principal organiser and adviser of the Liberal party for much of the 1880s and early 1890s. He retired from political life, due to ill health, in 1894 and died in 1900.

Reference: University of Birmingham, Special Collections Department, Online Archive Catalogue (http://calm.bham.ac.uk/DServeA/). Accessed May 2002.