Francis Schnadhorst

Who was Francis Schnadhorst?

Francis Schnadhorst was a Birmingham draper and English Liberal Party politician. He briefly held elected office on Birmingham Council and was offered the chance to stand for Parliament in winnable seats but he found his true metier was in political organisation and administration both in his home town as secretary of the highly successful Birmingham Liberal Association from 1867 onwards and nationally as secretary of the newly formed National Liberal Federation after 1877. He was famously described as ‘the spectacled, sallow, sombre’ Birmingham draper who within a short period of time was to establish himself through the Birmingham Liberal caucus as one of the most brilliant organisers in the country.