{{short description|British cricketer and politician}} {{about||the British Conservative politician|Arthur Raymond Heath|the Australian rules footballer|Arthur Heath (footballer)}} {{Use British English|date=February 2013}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2022}} {{Infobox cricketer | name = Arthur Heath | image = | country = England | fullname = Arthur Howard Heath | birth_date = {{birth date|1856|5|29|df=y}} | birth_place = Titterton, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England | death_date = {{death date and age|1930|4|24|1856|5|29|df=y}} | death_place = Marylebone, London, England | batting = Right-handed | bowling = Right-arm fast | club1 = Gloucestershire | year1 = 1875 | club2 = Oxford University | year2 = 1876–1879 | club3 = MCC | year3 = 1876–1894 | club4 = Middlesex | year4 = 1878 | columns = 1 | column1 = First-class | matches1 = 44 | runs1 = 969 | bat avg1 = 13.27 | 100s/50s1 = 0/4 | top score1 = 71 | deliveries1 = 659 | wickets1 = 26 | bowl avg1 = 14.65 | fivefor1 = 1 | tenfor1 = 0 | best bowling1 = 6/11 | catches/stumpings1 = 26/- | date = 10 July | year = 2010 | source = https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/30/30126/30126.html CricketArchive }}
'''Arthur Howard Heath''' TD (29 May 1856 – 24 April 1930)<ref>{{Rayment-hc|h|1|date=March 2012}}</ref> was a British industrialist, first-class cricketer, Rugby union international and Conservative Party politician.
==Background and education== Born at Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire on 29 May 1856, he was the younger son of Robert Heath (died 1893), owner of coal mines and iron works,<ref name=obit>{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Colonel A. H. Heath |department= Obituaries|date=26 April 1930 |page=12 |issue=45497 |column=B }}</ref> His elder brother was Sir James Heath, 1st Baronet. He was educated at Clifton College<ref>"Clifton College Register" Muirhead, J.A.O. p28: Bristol; J.W Arrowsmith for Old Cliftonian Society; April, 1948</ref> and Brasenose College, Oxford, where he graduated MA.
==Rugby and cricket== He was well known as a rugby player in the 1870s, representing Oxford University RFC against Cambridge in 1875, 1877, 1879, and 1880, and appearing for England against Scotland in 1876.<ref name = espn>{{cite web|title = ESPNcricinfo|url = http://www.espncricinfo.com/england/content/player/14700.html |access-date = 21 May 2016}}</ref><ref name=obit/><ref name="cricinfo">{{cite web|url=http://www.cricinfo.com/england/content/player/14700.html|title=Arthur Heath|work=ESPNcricinfo|access-date=10 July 2010}}</ref><ref name="Brief profile of A.H.Heath">{{cite web |url-access=subscription |url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Articles/0/876.html|title=Brief profile of A.H.Heath|last=Ambrose|first=Don|year=2003|work=Cricket Archive|accessdate=10 July 2010}}</ref>
The family was also very involved in cricket and his main sporting fame was as a cricket player and administrator. On the field he was a free-hitting batsman, strong on the off-side, fielded well at long-leg or cover-point, and bowled fast round-arm.<ref name = espn/> Starting at school, in away matches he made 120 not out for Clifton against Sherborne in 1874 and a faultless 164 against Cheltenham in 1875.He also played for Gloucestershire, making his debut in 1875, just after leaving school. Going up to Oxford, he played in the University XI for four seasons from 1876 to 1889, with a best score of 71 against Middlesex.<ref name = espn/>
He was a double Blue and competed in the Varsity Match in rugby and in the University Match at cricket .<ref name=obit />
In 1877 he played for Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) against Surrey at Lord's and in 1878 for Middlesex, appearing against Yorkshire at Bramall Lane and against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge. He was a member of MCC.<ref name=obit /><ref name = espn/>
Three brothers-in-law, his brother, his father-in-law and his son all played club and county cricket. Heath himself made 44 appearances at first-class level in all, scoring 969 runs and taking 26 wickets.<ref name="capro">{{cite web |url-access=subscription |url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/30/30126/30126.html|title=Player Profile: Arthur Heath|work=Cricket Archive|accessdate=10 July 2010}}</ref>
From 1879 on, his loyalty was to his native Staffordshire. He played for the county until 1898, being captain from 1884 to 1893 and leading the county team in its first ever Minor Counties Championship match. In addition, he served as honorary secretary from 1886 to 1888, and for many years as honorary treasurer. His highest scores for the county were 217 against Lincolnshire at Stoke-on-Trent in 1889, made in four hours, and 155 not out against Cheshire in 1882.<ref name = espn/><ref name=obit />
==Military career== He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Staffordshire Yeomanry on 18 August 1880.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=24874|page=4511|date=17 August 1880}}</ref> He was promoted lieutenant on an unknown date, and captain on 16 October 1886.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=25634|page=5009|date=15 October 1886}}</ref> He was promoted honorary major on 9 September 1896,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=26775|page=5038|date=8 September 1896}}</ref> honorary lieutenant-colonel on 12 July 1905,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=27815|page=4811|date=11 July 1905}}</ref> substantive lt-col, and commanding officer, on 7 April 1906,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=27902|page=2431|date=6 April 1906}}</ref> and honorary colonel on 31 May 1906.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=27978|page=8973|date=21 December 1906}}</ref> He was awarded the Territorial Decoration on 2 April 1909.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=28238|page=2595|date=2 April 1909}}</ref> He retired on 6 April 1910.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=28383|page=4079|date=10 June 1910}}</ref> In the First World War he was lt-col with the 48th Midlands (Howitzer) Brigade, Royal Field Artillery, until 1915.<ref name=Kelly>{{cite book|title=Kelly's Handbook of the Titled, Landed and Official Classes, 1930|publisher=Kelly|page=847}}</ref>
==Business career== He was involved in founding the ''Staffordshire Post'' in 1892, but this did not last long,<ref name=obit /> with its parent company, The Staffordshire Potteries Newspaper Company, Ltd, wound up in 1896.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=26701|page=376|date=21 January 1896}}</ref> The title was bought out by the ''Staffordshire Sentinel'' and Heath subsequently served as a director of that company, and later chairman, until the title was sold in 1928.<ref name=obit />
Heath had joined the family business after graduation. On the death of his father in 1893, Heath and his two brothers formed the company of Robert Heath and Sons, Ltd to run the family's coal and iron interests. This was sold to the Low Moor Iron Company in 1910. The brothers had also founded the Birchenwood Colliery Company at Newchapel near Kidsgrove in 1893, developing a coking and coal byproducts business. This was the largest industrial site that the Newchapel area has ever known and provided employment for several thousand people in its heyday.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.btinternet.com/~newchapelvillage/newchapelvillage/birchenwoodhistory.htm |accessdate=1 December 2011 |title=A Brief History of Birchenwood |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20121023080351/http://www.btinternet.com/~newchapelvillage/newchapelvillage/birchenwoodhistory.htm|archivedate=23 October 2012 }}</ref> According to his obituary in ''The Times'' Birchenwood did well during the First World War when its chemical products were in demand for explosives, but in the depression that followed, the company began to struggle, but the brothers kept it going to provide employment to the people of Kidsgrove, though it returned no profit to them.<ref name=obit />
==Political career== Heath was elected as the 1900 general election as the Member of Parliament (MP) for the borough of Hanley in Staffordshire, having fought the seat unsuccessfully in 1892 and 1895.<ref name="craig1885-1918">{{cite book |last=Craig |first=F. W. S. |author-link= F. W. S. Craig |title=British parliamentary election results 1885–1918 |orig-date=1974 |edition= 2nd |year=1989 |publisher= Parliamentary Research Services |location=Chichester |isbn= 0-900178-27-2 |page=118 }}</ref>
After losing his seat at the 1906 general election,<ref name="craig1885-1918" /> he was returned to the House of Commons at the January 1910 general election for the Leek division of Staffordshire, with a majority of only 10 votes.<ref name="craig-leek">Craig, op. cit., page 387</ref> He did not stand again at the December 1910 general election.<ref name="craig-leek" /> His father and his brother, Sir James Heath were also Members of Parliament.
He also became J.P. for Staffordshire in 1894<ref name=Kelly />
==Death== He died aged 73 on 24 April 1930, in Marylebone, London.<ref name="cricinfo" /> In legal notices relating to his estate he was described as "Arthur Howard Heath, late of Keele Hall, in the county of Stafford, and of No. 46, Orchard-court, Portman-square".<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=33677|page=188|date=6 January 1931}}</ref>
==Family== On 10 January 1884 at Thornton, Buckinghamshire, he married Alice (1854-1942), eldest daughter of the Reverend Herbert Richard Peel (1831-1885), a nephew of the prime minister Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet, and his wife Georgiana Maria (1830-1907), daughter of the Reverend Thomas Baker.<ref name =BP>{{citation|last =Mosley|first = Charles|title = Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage|edition = 107|location = Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.|publisher = Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd|year = 2003|url = http://www.thepeerage.com/s1.htm#s37|access-date = 21 May 2016}}</ref> Alice's sister Amy married the Reverend James Henry Savory, a cricketer for Oxford and MCC and an FA Cup finalist in football.
With Alice, he had two children: *Georgina Beatrice Heath (1885-1969), unmarried. *Robert Arthur Heath (1887-1943), who married a daughter of Rudolph Feilding, 9th Earl of Denbigh and had two children.<ref name =BP/>
== References == {{reflist}}
== External links == *{{Hansard-contribs | mr-arthur-heath-1 | Arthur Heath}}
{{s-start}} {{s-par|uk}} {{succession box | title = Member of Parliament for Hanley | years = 1900 – 1906 | before = William Woodall | after = Enoch Edwards }} {{succession box | title = Member of Parliament for Leek | years = January 1910 – December 1910 | before = Robert Pearce | after = Robert Pearce }} {{s-end}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Heath, Arthur Howard}} Category:1856 births Category:1930 deaths Category:Volunteer Force officers Category:Territorial Force officers Category:Military personnel from Staffordshire Category:19th-century British Army personnel Category:British Army personnel of World War I Category:Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Category:UK MPs 1900–1906 Category:UK MPs 1910 Category:English cricketers Category:Gloucestershire cricketers Category:Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Category:Middlesex cricketers Category:Oxford University cricketers Category:Staffordshire cricketers Category:Staffordshire cricket captains Category:Gentlemen of England cricketers Category:England international rugby union players Category:Alumni of Brasenose College, Oxford Category:People from Newcastle-under-Lyme Category:People educated at Clifton College Category:Staffordshire Yeomanry officers Category:British sportsperson-politicians Category:C. I. Thornton's XI cricketers Category:Old Oxonians cricketers Category:Cricketers from Newcastle-under-Lyme Category:Oxford University RFC players