Edward Allen Brotherton
Edward Allen Brotherton, Baron Brotherton (1856–1930), chemical manufacturer and philanthropist.
1856 Born at 2 Tiverton Place, Ardwick Green, Manchester, the eldest of three children of Theophilus Brotherton, a yarn agent, and his wife, Sarah, née O'Donnell.
His relatives included the educational reformer Edward Brotherton, and Joseph Brotherton, the first MP for Salford.
c.1870 He made an abortive attempt to go to sea, returning after two days, when the ship put into Holyhead.
c.1871 Left school and worked in a hardware store and as assistant in a chemical laboratory. During this period he also attended Henry Roscoe's evening classes in chemistry at Owens College, Manchester.
c.1875 Obtained a post at a chemical works in Wakefield.
1878 Brotherton became a partner in Dyson Brothers and Brotherton which exploited the large supplies of ammoniacal liquor produced in the coal-gas industry.
Brotherton secured the contract to supply ammonia to Brunner, Mond and Co.
He established other factories, on a similar basis to that at Wakefield, in several major conurbations.
1882 Brotherton married Jane Brookes,
1890 The firm became Brotherton and Co.
Through a chance contact with Sir George Beilby he opened up contacts with the Cassel Cyanide Co.
1902-3 He was mayor of Wakefield
1902-10 MP for Wakefield
Brotherton & Co. expanded into coal-tar distillation, and the treatment of its organic by-products.
1913-4 Mayor of Leeds
WWI Brotherton also purchased the Mersey Chemical Co. and extended his interests into the production of both inorganic materials and synthetic dyestuffs.
1918 He was created baronet in 1918
1918-22 MP for Wakefield.
1924 On Beilby's death, Brotherton became chairman of Cassel.
Brotherton made a series of large donations to the University of Leeds. He endowed the chair of bacteriology in 1921, and in 1927 donated £100,000 towards the cost of a new university library. One of his last public acts, in June 1930, was to lay the foundation stone of the new library, when he announced that he was leaving his collection of books and manuscripts in trust to the university.
1929 Made Baron Brotherton of Wakefield
1930 He died at Kirkham Hall; he bequeathed the University of Leeds a further £100,000.
See Also
Sources of Information
- Biography of Edward Brotherton, ODNB