Thomas Owen Jacobsen (23 April 1864 – 15 June 1941) was a British businessman and Liberal politician. He was born in Richmond Terrace, Liverpool, on 23 April 1864,[1] and was the son of a naturalised Dane.[2] He was a master printer and the senior partner in the stationery company of Jacobsen, Welch and Company, whose paper mills were at Hyde, Cheshire.[3][4]

Owen Jacobsen
Member of Parliament
for Hyde
Preceded byFrancis Neilson
Succeeded byConstituency abolished
Personal details
Born
Thomas Owen Jacobsen

(1864-04-23)23 April 1864
Died15 June 1941(1941-06-15) (aged 77)
Political partyLiberal

In March 1916, Francis Neilson, MP for Hyde, resigned his seat. Jacobsen was chosen as the Liberal candidate and was endorsed by the Asquith led Coalition Government. He was elected at the ensuing by-election.[2] He held the seat until the 1918 general election, when the constituency was abolished. In 1917, he was appointed as private secretary to Leo Chiozza Money, Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Shipping.[5] In 1918, he contested the new seat of Stalybridge and Hyde and was defeated.

Jacobsen was a resident of Brixton in South London and, in 1919, he was elected as a member of the London County Council for Lambeth North. He was part of the Liberal-supported Progressive grouping on the council.[6] In 1921, the MP for Southwark South East resigned and Jacobsen was chosen by the local Liberal Progressive and Radical Association to fight the by-election. He was not opposed by the Conservative Party but refused to describe himself as a Coalition Liberal, but as a "Liberal supporting the Coalition Government".[3] The by-election took place on 14 December 1921 when Jacobsen was heavily defeated by Thomas Naylor, leader of the London Labour Party.[7]

Jacobsen retired from the London County Council in 1922, and stood unsuccessfully for the Liberals at Lambeth Kennington at the 1923 general election.[8] He was going to stand at the 1924 general election but withdrew.[9] The 1929 election was his last electoral contest, when he failed to win the City of London for the Liberals.[10]

Jacobsen retired from politics and was president of the Stationers Association of Great Britain and Ireland from 1929 to 1931.[11] In 1935, the Jacobsen and Welch Company was sold.[12] He died in Worthing, Sussex, in 1941, aged 77.[13]

Electoral record edit

1916 Hyde by-election
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Owen Jacobsen 4,089 56.0 +4.6
Independent DP Davies 3,215 44.0 n/a
Majority 874 12.0 +9.2
Turnout 54.7 -34.3
Liberal hold Swing n/a
General election 1918: Stalybridge and Hyde
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Unionist John Wood 13,462 51.4
Labour Walter Fowden 6,508 24.8
Liberal Owen Jacobsen 6,241 23.8
Majority 6,954 26.6
Turnout 60.0
Unionist hold Swing
1919 London County Council election: Lambeth North (2 seats)
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Progressive Owen Jacobsen 2,656 38.1
Independent Rose Emma Lamartine Yates 2,619 37.6 n/a
Municipal Reform Louis Courtauld 885 12.7
Municipal Reform Camac Wilkinson 809 11.6
Majority 1,734 24.9
Progressive hold Swing
Independent gain from Municipal Reform Swing n/a
1921 Southwark South East by-election
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Thomas Naylor 6,561 57.0 29.6
National Liberal Owen Jacobsen 2,636 22.9 -49.7
Ind. Unionist Horace Louis Petit Boot 2,307 20.1 n/a
Majority 3,925 34.1 n/a
Turnout 11,504 38.5 -6.7
Labour gain from National Liberal Swing 39.6
General election 1923: Kennington
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Thomas Williams 8,292 39.2 +3.1
Unionist Reginald Blair 7,782 36.8 −10.5
Liberal Owen Jacobsen 5,075 24.0 +7.4
Majority 510 2.4 n/a
Turnout 21,149 57.6 −0.8
Registered electors 36,729
Labour gain from Unionist Swing +6.8
General election 1929: City of London (2 seats)
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Unionist Vansittart Bowater 16,149 43.9 n/a
Unionist Edward Grenfell 16,092 43.7 n/a
Liberal Owen Jacobsen 4,579 12.4 n/a
Majority 11,513 31.3 n/a
Turnout 46,469 45.2 n/a
Unionist hold Swing n/a

References edit

Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs

  1. ^ Liverpool Mercury 26 April 1864 p.3 Births, Deaths & Marriages
  2. ^ a b "Resignation of Mr Neilson", The Times, 3 March 1916, p.9
  3. ^ a b "S. E. Southwark Contest", The Times, 21 November 1921, p.7
  4. ^ "News in Brief", The Times, 13 March 1916, p.5
  5. ^ "Ministerial Secretaries", The Times, 19 February 1917, p.11
  6. ^ "LCC Election Results", The Times, 8 March 1919, p.14
  7. ^ "Labour Victory in Southwark", The Times, 15 December 1921, p.12
  8. ^ "General Election 1923 - Candidates nominated", The Times, 27 November 1923, p.8
  9. ^ "The General Election: First List of Candidates", The Times, 15 October 1924
  10. ^ "Election Contest in the City", The Times, 11 May 1929, p.9
  11. ^ "Obituary: Mr T. O. Jacobsen", The Times, 19 June 1941, p.7
  12. ^ "City News in Brief", The Times, 16 April 1935, p.23
  13. ^ "Deaths", The Times, 18 June 1941, p.1

External links edit

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Hyde
19161918
Constituency abolished