Richard Atwood Glass

Glass was born in Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire, in Southern England, the son of Francis Glass. He was educated at King's College London.[http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/w-r-william-retlaw-williams/the-parliamentary-history-of-the-county-of-worcester--including-the-city-of-wor-hci/page-18-the-parliamentary-history-of-the-county-of-worcester--including-the-city-of-wor-hci.shtml William Retlaw Williams. The parliamentary history of the county of Worcester : including the city of Worcester, and the boroughs of Bewdly, Droitwich, Dudley, Evesham, Kidderminster, Bromsgrove and Pershore, from the earliest times to the present day, 1213-1897; with biographical and genealogical notices of the members] In 1846 with George Elliot, he provided capital for an insolvent wire-rope manufacturers Heimann & Kuper, and by 1851 the firm was trading as Glass, Elliott & Company. The company produced submarine communications cables and in 1854 ran a circuit from Denmark to Sweden and undertook the manufacture of long cables for the French Mediterranean Telegraph Company of J W Brett. The cables with a resin-insulated conducting wire protected by an armour of iron wire proved to be long-lasting, and in the later 1850s the company introduced anti-corrosive compounds to coat the finished cable. The firm merged with the Gutta-Percha Company in 1864, and Glass became managing director of the resulting Telegraph Construction & Maintenance Company.[http://distantwriting.co.uk/appendices.aspx Distant Writing – A History of the Telegraph Companies in Britain between 1838 and 1868] Glass's company provided half of the first transatlantic telegraph cable and all the cable laid by the Great Eastern in 1866. Glass was knighted for these services on 26 November 1867.{{London Gazette|issue=23191|page=6468|date=27 November 1866}}

In the 1868 general election Glass was elected member of parliament for Bewdley. He was unseated on 16 February 1869 when the election was declared void.{{Rayment-hc|b|3|date=March 2012}}

Glass lived at Ashurst in Dorking, Surrey. He died on 22 December 1873, aged 53, of chronic Bright's disease at his home at South Stoneham, Hampshire.

{{Reflist|refs=

Anita McConnell, 'Glass, Sir Richard Atwood (1820–1873)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edn, Oxford University Press, September 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/10801, accessed 16 August 2010]

}}

• {{hansard-contribs | sir-Richard-Glass | Richard Glass}}

{{S-start}}

{{s-par|uk}}

{{s-bef | before = Sir Thomas Winnington }}

{{s-ttl

| title = Member of Parliament for Bewdley

| years = 1868 – 1869

}}

{{s-aft | after = John Pickersgill-Cunliffe }}

{{S-end}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Glass, Richard}}

Category:1820 births

Category:1873 deaths

Category:UK MPs 1868–1874

Category:Alumni of King's College London

Category:Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies

Category:Deaths from nephritis