HENRY FAWCETT – MP for Hackney

Despite his blindness, Fawcett campaigned vigorously for women's suffrage.

In 1880 he was appointed Postmaster-General by William Ewart Gladstone and sworn of the Privy Council. He introduced many innovations, including parcel post, postal orders, and licensing changes to permit payphones and trunk lines.

Through his campaigning for women's suffrage, Fawcett met Elizabeth Garrett, to whom he proposed in 1865. She rejected the proposal to concentrate on becoming a doctor at a time when women doctors were extremely rare. However, in 1867 Fawcett married her younger sister Millicent Garrett in 1867 and moved to a house in Vauxhall. They had one child, Philippa Fawcett.

In 1880 William Gladstone, leader of the Liberal government, appointed Fawcett as his Postmaster General. Fawcett, who introduced the parcel post, postal orders and the sixpenny telegram, also used his power as Postmaster General to start employing women medical officers.

Fawcett continued to argue for equal political rights for women and clashed with Gladstone's over his refusal to give women the franchise in the 1884 Reform Act.  When it came to the vote he abstained. The measure was roundly defeated but Gladstone was furious with Henry, and wrote to him saying his action had been tantamount to resignation. Henry was reprieved only because the Prime Minister wanted to avoid the bad publicity which would inevitably accompany a ministerial sacking."

Fawcett's career was cut short by his premature death from pleurisy in November 1884, aged 51.

There are statues of him in Salisbury Market Square and in Victoria Embankment Gardens in Central London.