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Loading... Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone. 1809 - 1898
By 1861 the population of Woolwich was 41,695 and Plumstead’s population had grown to 24,502. It was many of these new town voters, given the right to vote in 1867, who returned Gladstone in 1868 as one of the MPs for Greenwich.
They quickly became disillusioned when Deptford and Woolwich royal dockyards were closed in September 1869, although Gladstone was returned to Parliament again in 1874 by his Greenwich voters. The Greenwich Liberals became too radical for Gladstone and, on November 30th 1878, he went to Greenwich to speak at the Ship Hotel.
After saying goodbye to the Greenwich voters he proceeded to Woolwich and Plumstead. In the Herbert Park Roller Skating Rink he spoke to about three thousand people for two hours. It was a long goodbye. A plaque on Eglinton School reads “ On this site the Rt. Hon. W. E. Gladstone delivered his last speech to his Greenwich constituents"
NB - It was quite common for famous people to appear in photograph albums. At a time when photographs didn't appear in newspapers and television wasn't even thought of, the only way people could identify with their local celebrities was by way of studio photographs and these were made readily available for purchase.
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