John Albert Bright

John Albert Bright (1848 – 11 November 1924) was an English industrialist and Liberal Unionist and Liberal politician. Family and education J A Bright was the eldest son of the Liberal reformer, orator and statesman, John Bright. His family were steeped in Radical and reforming politics. His father’s brother, Jacob Bright was Liberal MP for different seats in Manchester between 1867 and 1895. His aunt was Priscilla Bright McLaren (1815-1906) a dedicated campaigner for women’s rights and the wife of Duncan McLaren the Liberal MP for Edinburgh from 1865 to 1881. His brother, William Leatham Bright (1851-1910), was Liberal MP for Stoke-on-Trent from 1885 to 1890. As a prominent member of the Society of Friends, John Bright employed Lydia Rous as a teacher for his children. In time he sent his son to the Quaker Grove House School, in Tottenham, London. John Albert later attended University College, London, where he won a prize for experimental physics and gained his B.Sc in 1867. In 1883, he married Edith Eckersley Shawcross, the daughter of W T Shawcross from Rochdale. They had one son and a daughter. Career John Albert had no desire to follow in his father’s footsteps and pursue a Parliamentary career, although he did share his Liberal politics and spoke at public meetings, often in support of his father. Instead, he went into the family cotton-spinning and manufacturing business and lived largely outside his father’s shadow.