Alfred Hopkinson

Who was Alfred Hopkinson?

Sir Alfred Hopkinson was an English lawyer, academic and politician who served as a Member of Parliament for two three-year periods, separated by nearly thirty years.

He was the son of John Hopkinson, a mechanical engineer, and among his brothers were John Hopkinson, a physicist and electrical engineer, and Edward Hopkinson, an electrical engineer and MP. He first stood for election to the House of Commons at the 1885 general election, when he was the unsuccessful Liberal Party candidate in Manchester East. He was unsuccessful again as a Liberal Unionist candidate at the 1892 general election, when he stood in Manchester South-West.

Hopkinson finally won a seat at the 1895 general election, when he was elected as MP for Cricklade in Wiltshire. He resigned from Parliament in February 1898, by the procedural device of accepting appointment as Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds.

Hopkinson was Vice-Chancellor of the Victoria University from 1901 to 15 July 1903 and then of the Victoria University of Manchester until 1913.