{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2018}} {{Use British English|date=March 2018}} {{Infobox officeholder |name = Gordon Harvey |image = File:Gordon Harvey.jpg |office = Member of Parliament <br>for Rochdale |term_start = 12 January 1906 |term_end = 14 December 1918 |party = Liberal |predecessor1 = Clement Royds |successor1 = Alfred Law |birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1858|12|31}} |birth_place = Manchester, Lancashire, England |death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1922|11|6|1858|12|31}} |death_place = Windermere, Westmorland, England }} '''Alexander Gordon Cummins Harvey''' (31 December 1858 – 6 November 1922) was a British cotton manufacturer and merchant and Liberal politician.
==Career== Gordon Harvey (as he was usually known) was born in Manchester the son of Cummins Harvey<ref name="Who was Who, OUP 2007">''Who was Who'', OUP 2007</ref> who was a partner in the cotton yarn and cloth manufacturing firm of Fothergill and Harvey.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/business/professionals/major-move-to-plastic-kept-firm-1025650|title=Major move to plastic kept firm in credit|work=Manchester Evening News|date=21 March 2006|accessdate=4 January 2009}}</ref> Gordon Harvey himself went on to become the head of an important firm of cotton spinners, manufacturers and merchants with mills at Littleborough and with warehouses and offices in Manchester.<ref name="The Times, 7 November 1922 p15">The Times, 7 November 1922 p15</ref>
==Politics== ===Lancashire County Council=== A Liberal in politics, and sometime Chairman of Middleton Division Liberal Association,<ref>The Times House of Commons, 1910; Politico’s Publishing 2004 p48</ref> Harvey was elected to Lancashire County Council in the year after its creation and was later made an Alderman of the county. He remained chairman of the county education committee up until the time of his death. He also served as a Justice of the Peace in Lancashire.<ref name="Who was Who, OUP 2007"/>
===Parliament=== Harvey first stood for Parliament at the Khaki election of 1900 as Liberal candidate for Rochdale. The election was fought in the jingoistic atmosphere of the Second Boer War which favoured the Conservatives. Despite taking the anti-war side Harvey still managed to come within 19 votes of beating the sitting Conservative MP, Clement Royds. {{Election box begin | |title=General election 1900: Rochdale }} {{Election box candidate with party link| |party = Conservative Party (UK) |candidate = Clement Royds |votes = 5,204 |percentage = 46.1 |change = 0.0 }} {{Election box candidate with party link| |party = Liberal Party (UK) |candidate = Alexander Gordon Cummins Harvey |votes = 5,185 |percentage = 45.9 |change = +4.0 }} {{Election box candidate with party link| |party = Labour Party (UK) |candidate = C A Clarke |votes = 901 |percentage = 8.0 |change = }} {{Election box majority| |votes = 19 |percentage = 0.2 |change = -4.0 }} {{Election box turnout| |votes = 11,290 |percentage = 87.1 |change = -1.1 }} {{Election box hold with party link| |winner = Conservative Party (UK) |swing = }} {{Election box end}} Harvey was elected as MP for Rochdale, however, at the 1906 general election beating Royds, who had held the seat since 1895, by 1,463 votes. {{Election box begin | |title=General election 1906: Rochdale }} {{Election box candidate with party link| |party = Liberal Party (UK) |candidate = Alexander Gordon Cummins Harvey |votes = 5,912 |percentage = 45.9 |change = 0.0 }} {{Election box candidate with party link| |party = Conservative Party (UK) |candidate = Clement Royds |votes = 4,449 |percentage = 34.6 |change = -11.5 }} {{Election box candidate with party link| |party = Independent Labour |candidate = Samuel George Hobson |votes = 2,506 |percentage = 19.5 |change = }} {{Election box majority| |votes = 1,463 |percentage = 11.3 |change = }} {{Election box turnout| |votes = 12,867 |percentage = 93.0 |change = +5.9 }} {{Election box gain with party link| |winner = Liberal Party (UK) |loser = Conservative Party (UK) |swing = }} {{Election box end}} He held the seat at the general elections of January {{Election box begin | |title=General election January 1910: Rochdale}} {{Election box candidate with party link| |party = Liberal Party (UK) |candidate = Alexander Gordon Cummins Harvey |votes = 6,809 |percentage = 48.8 |change = +2.9 }} {{Election box candidate with party link| |party = Conservative Party (UK) |candidate = W B Boyd-Carpenter |votes = 5,581 |percentage = 38.6 |change = +2.0 }} {{Election box candidate with party link| |party = Social Democratic Federation |candidate = Dan Irving |votes = 1,755 |percentage = 12.6 |change = }} {{Election box majority| |votes = 1,428 |percentage = 10.2 |change = -1.1 }} {{Election box turnout| |votes = 13,945 |percentage = 93.5 |change = +0.5 }} {{Election box hold with party link| |winner = Liberal Party (UK) |swing = }} {{Election box end}} and December 1910. {{Election box begin | |title=General election December 1910: Rochdale}} {{Election box candidate with party link| |party = Liberal Party (UK) |candidate = Alexander Gordon Cummins Harvey |votes = 5,373 |percentage = 44.6 |change = -4.2 }} {{Election box candidate with party link| |party = Conservative Party (UK) |candidate = N Cockshutt |votes = 4,850 |percentage = 40.9 |change = +2.3 }} {{Election box candidate with party link| |party = Social Democratic Federation |candidate = Dan Irving |votes = 1,901 |percentage = 14.5 |change = +1.9 }} {{Election box majority| |votes = 477 |percentage = 3.7 |change = -6.5 }} {{Election box turnout| |votes = 11,124 |percentage = 88.0 |change = -5.5 }} {{Election box hold with party link| |winner = Liberal Party (UK) |swing = }} {{Election box end}} He was on the extreme pacifist wing of the party and led the opposition to increased naval spending as World War One approached. The economist Francis Hirst wrote an approving biography of him.
Harvey was interested in the environment and in being a benevolent employer and some of his public works still survive in Littleborough.
==Death== Harvey was obliged to stand down from Parliament at the 1918 general election because of a disease of the throat, presumably cancer. He had to undergo two operations as a result <ref name="The Times, 7 November 1922 p15"/> but died at Windermere from the illness aged 63 years.<ref>The Times, 8 November 1922 p1</ref>
His family remained active in Liberal politics, his nephew Charles standing unsuccessfully for Rochdale in 1945 and another nephew Alexander sponsoring the young Cyril Smith to become a Liberal agent.
==References== {{Reflist}}
== External links == * {{Hansard-contribs | mr-alexander-harvey | Gordon Harvey }}
{{s-start}} {{s-par|uk}} {{succession box | title = Member of Parliament for Rochdale | years = 1906–1918 | before = Clement Royds | after = Alfred Law }} {{s-end}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harvey, Alexander Gordon Cummins}} Category:1858 births Category:1922 deaths Category:UK MPs 1906–1910 Category:UK MPs 1910 Category:UK MPs 1910–1918 Category:Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Category:Members of Lancashire County Council Category:Politicians from Manchester Category:Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Rochdale