https://indianpedia.org/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Alfred_WebbAlfred Webb - Revision history2026-07-30T01:43:37ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.45.4https://indianpedia.org/index.php?title=Alfred_Webb&diff=127840&oldid=prev>BrownHairedGirl at 21:05, 21 May 20212021-05-21T21:05:20Z<p></p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{for|the English footballer|Alf Webb}}<br />
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{{Use Irish English|date=March 2018}}<br />
[[File:AlfredWebb.jpg|thumb]]<br />
'''Alfred John Webb''' (10 June 1834 – 30 July 1908) was an Irish [[Quaker]] from a family of activist printers. He became an [[Irish Parliamentary Party]] politician and [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] (MP), as well as a participant in nationalist movements around the world. He supported Butt's [[Home Government Association]] and the [[United Irish League]]. At Madras in 1894, he became the third non-Indian (after [[George Yule (businessman)|George Yule]] and [[William Wedderburn]]) to preside over the [[Indian National Congress]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.congresssandesh.com/AICC/history/presidents/alfred_webb.htm|title=Alfred Webb President - Madras, 1894|work=Past Presidents of Indian National Congress|publisher=Indian National Congress|access-date=5 April 2010}}</ref><br />
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==Early life==<br />
Alfred Webb was the first child and only son of the three children of [[Richard D. Webb|Richard Davis Webb]] and Hannah Waring Webb (1810–1862). The family ran a printing shop in Dublin and belonged to a Quaker group that supported reforms such as [[suffrage]], the [[Abolitionism in the United Kingdom|abolition of slavery]] and [[anti-imperialism]]. The family press printed booklets for many of these causes and, in turn, their regular customers grew to include other similar organisations, including the [[Irish Protestant Home Rule Association]] and the Ladies’ [[Land League]], an organisation founded by [[Fanny Parnell|Fanny]] and [[Anna Parnell]] in 1880 that advocated on behalf of poor tenant farmers.<ref>Broderick, Marian. ''Wild Irish Women Extraordinary Lives from History''. New York: O'Brien, 2002. {{ISBN|0-86278-703-3}} (p.169)</ref><br />
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==Career==<br />
Alfred Webb was interested in [[literature]] and [[history]] and began to write ''A Compendium of Irish Biography''. In 1865, he began to take a more active interest in Irish politics. He was inspired by the [[Fenian]]s, although he believed in non-violence and the Fenians of that time believed that Ireland could only gain independence through an armed revolution.<ref name=jrl>{{cite book| title=Cosmopolitan Nationalism in the Victorian Empire Ireland, India and the Politics of Alfred Webb|first=Jennifer |last=Regan-Lefebvre|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|year=2009}}</ref> He was first elected to the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]] of the [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|United Kingdom]] on 24 February 1890, when he won a [[by-election]] for the [[West Waterford (UK Parliament constituency)|West Waterford]] constituency. He was again returned for West Waterford in the [[1892 United Kingdom general election|1892 general election]], this time as an [[Irish National Federation|anti-Parnellite]] MP. In December, 1883, he resigned from the position of Land League treasurer, complaining of Parnell's 'autocratic management of funds'.<ref>Paul Bew, ''Ireland: The Politics of Enmity'', ''1789-2006'', Oxford, 2007, 347</ref><br />
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His family had taken an interest in the [[Quality of life|welfare]] of [[British colonies]] and had been outspoken opponents of the [[History of opium in China|opium traffic into China]]. Webb was a close friend of [[Dadabhai Naoroji]], a key member of the [[Indian National Congress]], who was also a friend of other Irish nationalists including [[Michael Davitt]] and Frank Hugh O’Donnell. He was elected, as a member of the Liberal party, in 1892, the year of the Liberal landslide to the Finsbury Central Westminster seat. While O'Donnell attempted to involve Naoroji in Irish politics, Webb was invited by Naoroji to preside over the Indian National Congress in 1894.<ref name=jrl /><br />
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Webb was a supporter of ''[[Anti-Caste]]'', Britain's first [[anti-racism]] journal which fellow Quaker activist [[Catherine Impey]] founded in 1888. Webb was able to rally subscribers and activists for the journal around the world.<ref>Dr Caroline Bressey, [http://www.esrc.ac.uk/ESRCInfoCentre/Plain_English_Summaries/social_stability_exclusion/social_exclusion/index589.aspx?ComponentId=13749&SourcePageId=11719 ''Anti-Caste: Britain’s First Anti-racist Journal'', synopsis on ESRC website] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070312040416/http://www.esrc.ac.uk/ESRCInfoCentre/Plain_English_Summaries/social_stability_exclusion/social_exclusion/index589.aspx?ComponentId=13749&SourcePageId=11719 |date=2007-03-12 }} (RES-000-22-0522). Retrieved 26 July 2006.</ref> For example, although he was not a regular subscriber, Webb and [[Dadabhai Naoroji]] co-signed a letter with others to request support for a new association: ‘The Society for the Furtherance of Human Brotherhood’.<br />
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He was laid to rest in the [[Friends Burial Ground, Dublin|Quaker burial ground]] in Temple Hill, Monkstown, Dublin.<br />
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==See also==<br />
*[[Catherine Impey]]<br />
*[[William Wedderburn]]<br />
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== Notes ==<br />
{{reflist}}<br />
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== References ==<br />
*{{Rayment-hc| w | 1|date=March 2012}}<br />
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==Further reading==<br />
* ''[[s:A Compendium of Irish Biography|A Compendium of Irish Biography]]'' (Dublin, 1878)<br />
* Legg, Mary-Louise ''Alfred Webb: the Autobiography of a Quaker Nationalist'', Cork University Press, 1999 {{ISBN|1-85918-202-X}} (See also information from publishers accessed at [http://www.corkuniversitypress.com/epages/corkuniversitypress.storefront/44c792cc00c4432c273fc0a8029606bf/Product/View/185918202X/185918202X]{{Dead link|date=October 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} 26 July 2006)<br />
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==External links==<br />
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* {{Hansard-contribs | mr-alfred-webb | Alfred Webb}}<br />
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{{succession box<br />
| title = [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] for [[West Waterford (UK Parliament constituency)|West Waterford]]<br />
| years = [[1890 West Waterford by-election|1890]] – [[1895 West Waterford by-election|1895]]<br />
| before = [[Douglas Pyne]]<br />
| after = [[James John O'Shee]]<br />
}}<br />
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{{Indian National Congress Presidents | state=collapsed}}<br />
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[[Category:1834 births]]<br />
[[Category:1908 deaths]]<br />
[[Category:Irish Quakers]]<br />
[[Category:Protestant Irish nationalists]]<br />
[[Category:Irish Parliamentary Party MPs]]<br />
[[Category:Anti-Parnellite MPs]]<br />
[[Category:Presidents of the Indian National Congress]]<br />
[[Category:Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Waterford constituencies (1801–1922)]]<br />
[[Category:UK MPs 1886–1892]]<br />
[[Category:UK MPs 1892–1895]]<br />
[[Category:Burials at Friends Burial Ground, Dublin]]</div>>BrownHairedGirl