Frederick Townsend

Frederick Townsend, FLS (5 December 1822 – 16 December 1905) was a British botanist and Conservative politician who served as an Member of Parliament for six years Early life and education Townsend was born in Rawmarsh, West Riding of Yorkshire to Rev. Edward James Townsend, a Church of England clergyman, whose parish was first Rawmarsh and then Ilmington near Stratford-on-Avon. Frederick was educated at Harrow and went on to study at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he gained a BA in 1850 and then an MA in 1855. He was a respected amateur botanist and was elected a Fellow of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh in 1846 and as a Fellow of the Linnean Society in 1878. After living in Hampshire for several years he published the "Flora of Hampshire" in 1883, with 2nd edition in 1904. He was a friend to fellow botanists Cardale Babington and William Williamson Newbould. He was especially close to Newbould until his death in 1886. Parliamentary career Townsend entered Parliament as MP for Stratford-on-Avon as a result of the 1886 general election in which the Conservative Marquess of Salisbury became Prime Minister, ousting the Liberal leader, William Gladstone. He defeated the incumbent Liberal MP, Lord William Compton, with a majority of 489 votes. The constituency has only once elected a non-Conservative candidate since then.