{{Short description|British chemist and politician}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2020}} {{Infobox person | name = Max Muspratt | image = Max Muspratt.jpg | alt = | caption = Max Muspratt in 1917 | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1872|2|3|df=y}} | birth_place = Seaforth Hall, Liverpool, England | death_date = {{Death date and age|1934|4|20|1872|2|3|df=y}}<ref name="times">{{cite news |title=Obituary: Sir Max Muspratt |work=The Times |page=12 |date=21 April 1934 }}</ref> | death_place = Fulwood Park, Liverpool, England | nationality = | other_names = | occupation = chemist, businessman, politician | years_active = | known_for = | notable_works = | relatives = Edmund Knowles Muspratt (father)<br/>Frances Jane Baines (mother)<br/>Nessie Stewart-Brown (sister)<br/>Julia Solly (sister)<br/>Nelia Penman (niece)<br/>James Muspratt (grandfather) }} '''Sir Max Muspratt, 1st Baronet''' (3 February 1872 – 20 April 1934) was a British chemist and a politician in the city of Liverpool, England.
==Early life and education== He was born at Seaforth Hall, Seaforth, Lancashire, the son of Edmund Knowles Muspratt and his wife Frances Jane Baines. He was one of eight children and a brother of Suffragists Nessie Stewart-Brown and Julia Solly.<ref>Krista Cowman, 'Brown, Nessie Stewart (1864–1958)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/59518, accessed 11 Feb 2014]</ref> He was an uncle of Nelia Penman, who served as President of the Women's Liberal Federation.<ref>Nottingham Evening Post, 9 April 1937</ref> The Muspratt family were originally from Dublin but moved to Liverpool in 1822 when James Muspratt, the father of Edmund, established a chemical factory in Vauxhall Road.<ref name="dnb">Trevor I. Williams, (2004) 'Muspratt, James (1793–1886)’, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/19676] Retrieved on 9 March 2007.</ref>
Muspratt was educated at a private school in Hemel Hempstead and at Clifton College<ref>"Clifton College Register" Muirhead, J.A.O. p135: Bristol; J.W Arrowsmith for Old Cliftonian Society; April, 1948</ref> before studying industrial chemistry at Zürich Polytechnic.
==United Alkali== Muspratt joined the United Alkali Company in 1892 (the firm had been founded by his father), becoming a director in 1901 and its chairman from 1914.<ref name=gazette32766>{{London Gazette|issue=32766|supp=y|page=8016|date=10 November 1922}}</ref> In 1926 the United Alkali Company merged with three other companies to form Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) and Muspratt was a director from its founding until his death in 1934. He was also a director of the International Automatic Telephone Company. He was a member of the Society of Chemical Industry from 1894, becoming its Vice–President from 1904 to 1906 and again from 1921 to 1924. From 1924 he was chairman of the Association of British Chemical Manufacturers and from 1926 to 1927 president of the Federation of British Industries.<ref>{{citation |url=http://www.open.ac.uk/ou5/Arts/chemists/person.cfm?SearchID=5260 |title=Biographical Database of the British Chemical Community, 1880–1970: Muspratt, Max, Sir |accessdate=2007-07-04 |publisher=The Open University |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204040242/http://www.open.ac.uk/ou5/Arts/chemists/person.cfm?SearchID=5260 |archive-date=4 February 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
==Political career==
Muspratt was a Liberal and served on the Liverpool City Council from 1904. At the January 1910 general election he was returned to the House of Commons as Member of Parliament (MP) for Liverpool Exchange, but was not re-elected at the December 1910 general election,<ref>{{citation |url=http://www.leighrayment.com/commons/ecommons2.htm |title=The House of Commons Constituencies beginning with "E" |accessdate=2007-07-04 |last=Rayment |first=Leigh |year=2003 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171129230526/http://www.leighrayment.com/commons/Ecommons2.htm |archive-date=29 November 2017 }}</ref> and was defeated in the 1911 Bootle by-election. He left the Liberals for the Conservative Party in 1926.<ref>{{citation |url=http://www.mersey-gateway.org/server.php?show=conMediaFile.3829 |title=E. Chambré Hardman Archive: Sir Max Muspratt (1872–1934) |accessdate=2007-07-04 |publisher=National Trust |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927205900/http://www.mersey-gateway.org/server.php?show=conMediaFile.3829 |archivedate=27 September 2007}}</ref>
During the First World War, Muspratt served as Lord Mayor of Liverpool from 1916 to 1917.<ref>{{citation |url=http://www.liverpool.gov.uk/Council_government_and_democracy/Town_Hall/formermayors/index.asp#1900 |title=Former Mayors and Lord Mayors of the City of Liverpool |accessdate=2007-07-04 |publisher=The City of Liverpool }}{{dead link|date=January 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> He advised the Ministry of Munitions about industrial chemical matters, particularly in the supply of sulphuric acid.<ref name="dnb"/> and worked in the Trench Warfare Department.<ref name=gazette32766 />
==Personal life==
In 1896, Muspratt married Helena Agnes Dalrymple Ainsworth of Blackburn, Lancashire. They had two sons, one of whom died in childhood, and two daughters. His surviving son, Rudolph, pre–deceased him in 1929.<ref name="dnb"/> Rudolph had fathered two twin boys who died in infancy.<ref name="times"/>
He was created a baronet in 1922, of Merseyside, Lancashire, in the 1922 Dissolution Honours.<ref name=gazette32766 /><ref>{{London Gazette|issue=32779|page=9029|date=22 December 1922}}</ref>
He died on 20 April 1934, the day after undergoing an operation for "internal trouble." The baronetcy became extinct on his death.<ref name="times"/>
==Notes== {{Reflist}}
== External links == * {{Hansard-contribs | mr-max-muspratt | Sir Max Muspratt }}
{{S-start}} {{s-par|uk}} {{succession box | title = Member of Parliament for Liverpool Exchange | years = January 1910–December 1910 | before = Richard Cherry | after = Leslie Scott }} {{s-reg|uk-bt}} {{s-new | creation }} {{s-ttl | title = Baronet<br />'''(of Merseyside, Lancashire)''' | years = 1922–1934 }} {{s-non | reason = Extinct }} {{S-end}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Muspratt, Max}} Category:People educated at Clifton College Category:1872 births Category:1934 deaths Category:Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom Category:British chemists Category:Imperial Chemical Industries people Category:People from Bootle Category:Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Category:UK MPs 1910 Category:Conservative Party (UK) politicians Category:Businesspeople from Liverpool Category:Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Liverpool constituencies Category:Mayors of Liverpool Max Category:Liberal Party (UK) councillors in Liverpool