GONE BUT NOT QUITE FORGOTTEN
He was ambitious, intelligent and one of the great “swell’s” of his day yet Henry de Worms (1840 – 1903) is also one of history’s forgotten men. That’s a pity because this son of a wealthy Jewish immigrant achieved so much in his lifetime.
At a time when Victorian Jews with political aspirations were mainly Liberals, Worms was one of the few to buck the trend. He was a Conservative MP (Greenwich and later Liverpool East Toxteth), and divorced his wife at a time when marital separations were frowned upon by society. Although he never got a cabinet position that didn’t stop Prime Minister Lord Salisbury rewarding him with a peerage for his services to government.
Taking the title Lord Pirbright (after the Surrey village where he lived), de Worms used his money to build houses and shops, ensuring Pirbright’s expansion. Pirbright resident and retired academic James Grimshaw has brought the man to life in this comprehensively researched biography. There are moments when the narrative is weighed down by lengthy, wooden descriptions of the subject’s complicated family tree, although that shouldn’t detract from the point that as a supporter of female suffrage de Worms was still ahead of his time.
Reviewed by Juliette Foster
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