Harold W. Whiston

Whiston was educated at Tettenhall College and Owen's College in Staffordshire.{{cite news|url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0001775%2F19520117&page=1 |title=Industrialist, Politician and Preacher: Death of Mr. Harold W. Whiston|newspaper=The Macclesfield Times |date=January 17, 1952|page=1}} {{subscription required}} As a young man he worked with his father Alderman William Whiston who owned and managed Langley Silk Printing Works. In 1901, he became a partner of the business and was the sole owner after his father died in 1915. He registered the business as a limited company under the title of William Whiston & Sons Ltd and became governing director. In 1929, the company was amalgamated under the title of Brocklehurst Whiston Amalgamated.{{cite book|last1=Collins |first1=Louanne |first2=Moira |last2=Stevenson |others=Macclesfield Museums Trust |title=Macclesfield The Silk Industry|page=71|publisher=Nonsuch Publishing Limited|location=Stroud, Gloucester|year=1995|edition=New Pocket Edition 2006|series=Images of England|isbn=1-84588-294-6}} He became director of the combined company until his retirement in 1951.

Whiston was the senior Magistrate in Macclesfield, having been appointed as Justice of Peace in 1914.{{cite news|url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0001775%2F19500119&page=1 |title=Magistrates' Chairman Resigns|newspaper=The Macclesfield Times |date=January 19, 1950|page=1}} {{subscription required}} He was appointed chairman of Macclesfield County Magistrates in 1941. He was also chairman of the Licensing Justices and of the Juvenile Court.{{cite news|url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0001775%2F19430916&page=6 |title=Danesford School: Mr. Whiston Conducts Service|newspaper=The Macclesfield Times and East Cheshire Observer |date=September 16, 1943|page=6}} {{subscription required}} He resigned as chairman in 1949 from injuries sustained from an accident falling down steps inside Macclesfield Town Hall, but continued to sit on the bench as a magistrate.{{cite news|url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0003126%2F19490913&page=12 |title=Magistrate Injured in Fall|newspaper=Express and Star |date=September 13, 1949 |page=12}} {{subscription required}}{{cite news|url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0000321%2F19490913&page=6 |title=Magistrate's Fall Down Steps|newspaper=The Nottingham Evening Post |date=September 13, 1949|page=6}} {{subscription required}}

He was chairman of the Liberal Party Macclesfield Division, a position he held from 1906.{{cite news|url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0001643%2F19111028&page=5 |title=Mr. H. W. Whiston and the Oldham Bye-Election|newspaper=The Macclesfield Courier and Herald |date=October 28, 1911|page=5}} {{subscription required}}{{cite news|url= https://www.findmypast.co.uk/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0002856%2F19141016&page=6|title=Mr. Harold Whiston|newspaper=The Advertiser |date=October 16, 1914|page=6}} {{subscription required}} He was active in the temperance movement as president of the Band of Hope Union. He resigned in 1911 to focus on political issues.{{cite news|url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0001643%2F19110916&page=5 |title=Notes|newspaper=The Macclesfield Courier and Herald |date=September 16, 1911|page=5}} {{subscription required}} He became president of the Liberal Party Macclesfield Division and was invited to become a candidate but was unable to accept because of business demands.

==Personal life==

Whiston married Alice Proctor in 1896. They celebrated their silver wedding in 1921.{{cite news|url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0001775%2F19210422&page=5 |title=Silver Wedding Celebration: Gifts to Mr. and Mrs. H. W. Whiston.|newspaper=The Macclesfield Times and East Cheshire Observer |date=April 22, 1921|page=5}} {{subscription required}} He was a wealthy landowner. In 1925, he invited 50 members of the Stockport Horticultural Society to his gardens at the Elms, Macclesfield.{{cite news|url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0001775%2F19250828&page=5 |title=Gardeners at the Elms: An Instructive Visit|newspaper=The Macclesfield Times and East Cheshire Observer |date=August 28, 1925|page=5}} {{subscription required}}

He was a vegetarian, non-smoker, teetotaller and anti-vaccinator. He served on the General Council of the Order of the Golden Age and was appointed its first provincial counsellor.{{cite journal|year=1897|title=Notes by the Way|journal=The Herald of the Golden Age|url=http://iapsop.com/archive/materials/herald_of_the_golden_age/herald_of_the_golden_age_v2_n10_oct_15_1897.pdf|volume=2|issue=10|pages=114}} In 1908, he was a speaker at the Vegetarian Society's May conference at Queen's Hall with Albert Broadbent, Walter Hadwen, William Harrison and James C. Street.{{cite news|url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0000452%2F19080506&page=1 |title=Diet and Health|newspaper=Edinburgh Evening News |date=May 6, 1908|page=1}} {{subscription required}}

Whiston was a Methodist and was known as a preacher at Langley Chapel. He was a member of the National Anti-Vaccination League.{{cite news|url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0004833%2F19070305&page=4 |title=National Anti-vaccination League|newspaper=The Morning Leader |date=March 5, 1907|page=4}} {{subscription required}} He authored an anti-vaccination book in 1906 titled Why Vaccinate. Mahatma Gandhi was known to have quoted from the book to denounce vaccination as unnecessary.{{cite book |last=Gandhi |first=Mahatma |author-link=Mahatma Gandhi |date=2000 |title=The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Volume 48|url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Collected_Works_of_Mahatma_Gandhi/YBdWAAAAYAAJ |publisher=Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India |page=316}}

Whiston died in 1952, aged 78. Tributes were paid to him at Macclesfield County Magistrates' Court, including an act of silence as a mark of respect.{{cite news|url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0001775%2F19520124&page=1 |title=Court Tributes to Late Mr. Whiston|newspaper=The Macclesfield Times and East Cheshire Observer|date=January 24, 2024|page=1}} {{subscription required}} An obituary described him as "one of the most forceful and dynamic personalities Macclesfield has ever produced".

• Humanity’s Great Enemy (1898){{Cite web|date=|title=Publications|url=https://www.ordergoldenage.co.uk/publications/|website=Order of the Golden Age|language=en-GB|archive-date=January 16, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240116225651/https://www.ordergoldenage.co.uk/publications/|url-status=live}}
• {{cite journal|year=1902|title=The Great Cry|journal=The Vegetarian Magazine|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015074774475&seq=10|volume=6|issue=7|pages=152-153}}
• Why Vaccinate (1906){{cite news|url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0004833%2F19061003&page=8 |title=Why Vaccinate|newspaper=The Morning Leader|date=October 3, 1906|page=8}} {{subscription required}}

{{Reflist}}

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Category:1873 births

Category:1952 deaths

Category:19th-century English businesspeople

Category:20th-century English businesspeople

Category:British anti-vaccination activists

Category:English justices of the peace

Category:English temperance activists

Category:English vegetarianism activists

Category:People associated with the Order of the Golden Age

Category:People educated at Tettenhall College

Category:People from Macclesfield