{{Short description|English politician}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2016}} {{Use British English|date=December 2016}} thumb|right|Russell Rea MP, circa 1906 '''Russell Rea''' PC, MP (11 December 1846<ref name="debrett">{{cite book | title = Debrett's House of Commons, and the Judicial Bench | year = 1901 | publisher = Dean & Son | location = London | page = 126 | url = https://archive.org/stream/debrettshouseo1901londuoft#page/126/mode/1up | accessdate = 31 August 2012 }}</ref> – 5 February 1916) was an English ship-owner from Liverpool and Liberal Party politician. He sat in the House of Commons in two periods between 1900 and 1916.
==Early life and family==
Rea was the third son of Daniel Key Rea from Eskdale in Cumberland and his wife Elizabeth, who was the daughter of Liverpool shipbuilder Joseph Russell.<ref name="debrett" /> He was educated privately.<ref name="debrett" />
In 1872 he married Jane Philip Mactaggart, the daughter of Peter Mactaggart from Liverpool.<ref name="debrett" /> They had two sons and a daughter, Ada Hope Russell Rea (1870-1922). The older son, Walter (1873–1948), entered politics and became a Member of Parliament (MP) for most of the period from 1906 to 1935, and was ennobled in 1937 with the hereditary title of Baron Rea. The younger son ran the Liverpool branch of the family business.<ref name="times-obit">{{cite news |title=Obituary: Mr. Russell Rea, M.P. |url=http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itw/infomark/588/707/160772198w16/purl=rc1_TTDA_0_CS101647943&dyn=8 |newspaper=The Times |date=7 February 1916 |page=6 |accessdate=1 September 2012 }}</ref>
==Career==
===Business=== In the 1890s, he founded the ship-owning and merchant company of R. and J. H. Rea in Liverpool. The business grew to have branches in Cardiff, Southampton, Bristol, and Newcastle upon Tyne, and Rea was senior director of all main company and all its subsidiaries.<ref name="times-obit" /> He was also deputy chairman of the Taff Vale Railway.<ref name="debrett" />
===Politics=== Rea was the Liberal candidate at the November 1897 by-election in the Exchange division of Liverpool, where he lost by only 54 votes (1% of the total) to the Liberal Unionist candidate Charles McArthur.<ref name="craig1885-1918">{{cite book |last=Craig |first=F. W. S. |authorlink= F. W. S. Craig |title=British parliamentary election results 1885–1918 |orig-date=1989 |edition=2nd |year=1983 |publisher= Parliamentary Research Services |location=Chichester |isbn= 0-900178-27-2 |pages= 111, 141, 191 }}</ref>
At the 1900 general election, he was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Gloucester, where he was re-elected in 1906.<ref name="craig1885-1918" /> He became a Privy Councillor in 1909.<ref name="gazette29june1909">{{London Gazette |issue=28265 |date=29 June 1909 |page=4953 }}</ref> However, at the January 1910 election, he lost his seat to the Conservative Party candidate Henry Terrell.<ref name="craig1885-1918" />
However, he returned to Parliament only 9 months after his defeat, when he won the October 1910 by-election for South Shields.<ref name="craig1885-1918" />
Rea was appointed as a Junior Lord of the Treasury in 1915, but his health broke down in November 1915, and on 5 February 1916 he died of heart failure at his home in Dorking, aged 69.<ref name="times-obit" /> His funeral was held in St Margaret's, Westminster, and he was buried in Golders Green.<ref name="times-funeral">{{cite news |title=Funerals |url=http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itw/infomark/588/707/160772198w16/purl=rc1_TTDA_0_CS185402954&dyn=9!nxt_229_0_CS185402954 |newspaper=The Times |date=10 February 1916 |page=11 |accessdate=1 September 2012 }}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{Hansard-contribs | mr-russell-rea | Russell Rea }} * {{NPG name}}
{{s-start}} {{s-par|uk}} {{s-bef | before = Charles Monk }} {{s-ttl | title = Member of Parliament for Gloucester | years = 1900–January 1910 }} {{s-aft | after = Henry Terrell }} {{s-bef | before = William Robson }} {{s-ttl | title = Member of Parliament for South Shields | years = 1910–1916 }} {{s-aft | after = Cecil Cochrane }} {{s-end}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rea, Russell}} Category:1846 births Category:1916 deaths Category:Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Category:UK MPs 1900–1906 Category:UK MPs 1906–1910 Category:UK MPs 1910 Category:UK MPs 1910–1918 Category:English businesspeople in shipping Category:Businesspeople from Liverpool Category:Politicians from Liverpool Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Category:19th-century English businesspeople