George Harwood

George Harwood (14 September 1845 – 7 November 1912) was a British businessman and Liberal Party politician. He was born the second son of Richard Harwood who founded a firm of cotton spinners and who was at one time Mayor of Bolton and twice Mayor of Salford.

George Harwood went to school locally in Lancashire and then entered his father’s cotton business while still finding time to continue his education at Owens College, the establishment founded with a bequest left by John Owens, a successful Manchester cotton merchant and first set up in a house in Deansgate, Manchester, once occupied by Richard Cobden. Owens College developed into the Victoria University of Manchester, which later combined with UMIST to become the University of Manchester.

Harwood loved learning and, while still running a cotton mill as his main source of income, (he eventually became chairman of Richard Harwood & Son, Ltd, cotton spinners, Bolton) devoted himself to studying the classics and political economy, eventually gaining an MA degree from the University of London. He declined an offer of a professorship of political economy in South Australia to begin a study of theology and combined with others, including Dean Stanley, to found the Church Reform Union which attempted to introduce democratic principles into the Church of England by giving every member of a congregation a share in the government and finance of the church; it also aimed to unite the various denominations of Protestantism. Harwood was active in the British and Foreign Bible Society. Ordained a deacon of the Anglican Church in 1886 by James Moorhouse, Bishop of Manchester he preached regularly across the north of England over the next two years as well as acting as curate of St Ann’s Church, Manchester.

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