Arthur Fell
English politician
title: "Arthur Fell" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1850-births", "1934-deaths", "conservative-party-(uk)-mps-for-english-constituencies", "uk-mps-1906–1910", "uk-mps-1910", "uk-mps-1910–1918", "uk-mps-1918–1922", "english-solicitors", "alumni-of-st-john's-college,-oxford", "people-from-wimbledon,-london", "people-from-nelson,-new-zealand", "new-zealand-emigrants-to-the-united-kingdom", "channel-tunnel", "politics-of-the-borough-of-great-yarmouth", "knights-bachelor", "fell-family"] description: "English politician" topic_path: "politics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Fell" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary English politician ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox officeholder"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Sir Arthur Fell |
| office | Member of Parliament |
| for Great Yarmouth | |
| term_start | 1906 |
| term_end | 1922 |
| predecessor | Sir John Colomb |
| successor | Arthur Harbord |
| birth_date | 7 August 1850 |
| birth_place | Nelson, New Zealand |
| death_date | |
| death_place | Wimbledon, London, England |
| alma_mater | St John's College, Oxford |
| parents | Alfred Fell (father) |
| relatives | Charles Fell (brother) |
| George Fell (brother) | |
| Walter Fell (brother) | |
| Alfred Fell (nephew) | |
| William Richmond Fell (nephew) | |
| Anthony Fell (politician) (grandson) | |
| Henry Seymour (grandfather) | |
| :: |
| name = Sir Arthur Fell | office = Member of Parliament for Great Yarmouth | image = | term_start = 1906 | term_end = 1922 | predecessor = Sir John Colomb | successor = Arthur Harbord | majority = | office1 = | term_start1 = | term_end1 = | predecessor1 = | successor1 = | birth_date = 7 August 1850 | birth_place = Nelson, New Zealand | death_date = | death_place = Wimbledon, London, England | party = | alma_mater = St John's College, Oxford | parents = Alfred Fell (father) | relatives = Charles Fell (brother) George Fell (brother) Walter Fell (brother) Alfred Fell (nephew) William Richmond Fell (nephew) Anthony Fell (politician) (grandson) Henry Seymour (grandfather) Sir Arthur Fell (7 August 1850 – 29 December 1934) was an English solicitor and Conservative Party politician. After a notorious legal case in 1906 where a biased judge dismissed an election petition against him, Fell sat in the House of Commons from 1906 to 1922 for Great Yarmouth. He was noted as an opponent of free trade and as a persistent advocate of a Channel Tunnel.
Early life
Fell was born in the city of Nelson, New Zealand, the fourth son of Alfred Fell{{cite news |title=Sir Arthur Fell:Tariffs And The Channel Tunnel |date=31 December 1934 |work=The Times |page=17, col C |location=London |title=Biographies Of New Members |date=25 January 1906 |work=The Times |page=15, col C |location=London |last=Hesilridge |first=Arthur G. M. |title=Debrett's House of Commons and the Judicial Bench 1922 |url=https://archive.org/stream/debrettshouseo1922londuoft#page/55/mode/1up |year=1922 |publisher=Dean & Son |location=London |page=55 |title=The Times House of Commons 1910 |edition=2nd |orig-year=1910 |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-84275-034-6 |publisher=Methuen |location=London |page=38
Career
Fell moved from law into business, becoming involved in a range of companies including three of which he was chairman: the African City Properties Trust, the Siberian Syndicate and the Spassky Copper Mine. He travelled in Europe and in the British Dominions.
1906 election
In July 1904, Fell was selected as the Conservative candidate for the borough of Great Yarmouth,{{cite news |title=Election Intelligence |date=16 July 1904 |work=The Times |pages=9, col C |location=London where the sitting Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) Sir John Colomb was retiring and had recommended Fell to the Yarmouth Conservatives.{{cite news |title=The Yarmouth Election Petition |date=3 May 1906 |work=The Times |page=11, col D |location=London |issue= 27885 |date=13 February 1906 |page=1047 |city=London |last=Craig |first=F. W. S. |author-link= F. W. S. Craig |title=British parliamentary election results 1885–1918 |orig-year=1974 |edition= 2nd |year=1989 |publisher= Parliamentary Research Services |location=Chichester |isbn= 0-900178-27-2 |page=115
::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/Great_Yarmouth_Town_Hall.jpg" caption="The town hall in [[Great Yarmouth]], where hearings were held in April and May 1906 on the [[election petition"] ::
An election petition was lodged against the result by the defeated Liberal Party candidate Martin White,{{cite news |title=An election petition at Yarmouth |date=12 February 1906 |work=The Times |page=10, col B |location=London alleging a range of illegal practices including bribery and treating of voters by Fell and his agents. The hearings began on 26 April at the town hall in Yarmouth, before Justice Grantham and Justice Channell. Both Fell and White employed King's Counsel, assisted on Fell's side by four junior counsel.
The case concluded in May, and the petition was dismissed.{{cite news |title=The trial of the Yarmouth election petition has come to a curious conclusion |date=5 May 1906 |work=The Times |page=11, col D |location=London
However, the judges found that on election day a Mr John George Baker{{cite news |title=The Yarmouth Election Petition |date=27 April 1906 |work=The Times |page=8, col B |location=London
::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3f/SirWilliamGrantham.jpg" caption="Sir Wiliam Grantham]], the judge who dismissed the [[election petition]] against Fell"] ::
The Times newspaper described the decision as a "curious conclusion". Justice Grantham was himself a former Conservative MP, and this was the third petition hearing at that year in which he had been seen to express political partisanship, having previously heard petitions relating to the 1906 election in Bodmin and Maidstone.{{cite news |title=Death Of Mr. Justice Grantham. A Vigorous Personality |date=1 December 1911 |work=The Times |page=11, col E |location=London |title=House Of Commons |date=7 July 1906 |work=The Times |page=4, col E |location=London}} was moved by South Donegal MP J. G. Swift MacNeill, who attacked Grantham to repeated cheers in the House. Baker, he pointed out, was a boatman whose wife was being sued for non-payment of her milk bill; and Grantham had described Colomb as "my fear friend". In a lengthy debate, the Attorney-General Sir John Walton described Grantham's conduct as "most unfortunate", but warned the House that proceeding to ask the Crown to remove a judge was an extreme step, and one he advised against. MacNeill withdrew the motion.
Subsequent elections
At the January 1910 general election, Fell faced a strong challenge from the Liberal Major J. E. Platt,{{cite news |title=The Political Situation. Party Prospects |date=4 January 1910 |work=The Times |pages=8, col A |location=London |issue= 28338 |date=11 February 1910 |page=1037 |issue= 28449 |date=23 December 1910 |page=9557 |title=Court Circular |date=7 February 1918 |work=The Times |pages=9, col A |location=London}} and returned for a fourth and final time at the 1918 general election, as a Coalition Conservative{{cite book |last=Craig |first=F. W. S. |author-link= F. W. S. Craig |title=British parliamentary election results 1918–1949 |orig-year=1969 |edition=3rd |year=1983 |publisher= Parliamentary Research Services |location=Chichester |isbn= 0-900178-06-X |page=138 |title=News in Brief: Yarmouth Unionist Candidate |date=4 March 1920 |work=The Times |page=7, col G |location=London
In Parliament
::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/Gravure_tunnel_sous_la_manche.jpg" caption="Channel Tunnel as depicted in 1885"] ::
In Parliament, Fell was a noted protectionist, and an outspoken critics of free trade who published a series of pamphlets both on trade and on food supplies in wartime, including The Fallacy of Free Trade, The Failure of Free Trade and John Bull's Balance Sheet.
Fell was also a long-standing advocate of building a rail tunnel under the English Channel between England and France. He presented a paper The Channel Tunnel to the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) on 17 December 1913{{cite news |title=Court Circular |date=17 December 1913 |work=11, col F |page=The Times |location=London and by February 1914 he was the chairman of the House of Commons Channel Tunnel Committee, an all-party parliamentary group (with 100 members in 1914){{cite news |title=City And The Channel Tunnel. Military Fears Scouted., The Financial Prospects |date=27 February 1914 |work=4, col A |page=The Times |location=London The tunnel's advocates included the Duke of Argyll, Lord Glantawe, Joynson-Hicks, Will Crooks, Hamar Greenwood, Sir William Bull and Arthur Conan Doyle. At a public meeting in London in February 1914 they made the case that the tunnel would increase commerce in peacetime and improve communications in wartime.
During World War I, Fell and the committee continued to press the case for a tunnel, leading a delegation of MPs to the Prime Minister H. H. Asquith in October 1916.{{cite news |title=The Channel Tunnel. Mr. Asquith's Promise Of Consideration., The Changed Conditions |date=27 October 1916 |work=5, col A |page=The Times |location=London
By 1917, Asquith had been replaced as prime minister by David Lloyd George, and Fell told the National Liberal Club that he had "a very shrewd idea" what Lloyd George's attitude would be to the scheme,{{cite news |title=Channel Tunnel Project |date=27 February 1917 |work=3, col C |page=The Times |location=London and that if a review reported in favour of a tunnel the coalition government would support it. In June of that year, 110 MPs supported a request for a debate on a tunnel.{{cite news |title=Political notes |date=30 June 1917 |work=7, col F |page=The Times |location=London
On 13 June 1918, Fell presented another paper to the RSA.{{cite news |title=The Channel Tunnel. Sir A. Fell On London As World Capital |date=14 June 1918 |work=3, col B |page=The Times |location=London
In November 1919, Fell led another delegation to 10 Downing Street, which included the Irish Parliamentary Party MP Captain William Redmond and the Labour Party leader William Adamson.{{cite news |title=Channel Tunnel. Political Objection Removed., The Prime Minister's Assurance |date=13 November 1919 |work=12, col G |page=The Times |location=London |title=The Channel Tunnel Deputation. Official Report., Further Inquiry By General Staff. |date=14 November 1919 |work=14, col E |page=The Times |location=London
Little progress appears to have been made, and in July 1920 the Channel Tunnel Committee passed a resolution urging that government approval for a tunnel "no longer be postponed".{{cite news |title=Political Notes. The Channel Tunnel |date=6 July 1920 |work=14, col E |page=The Times |location=London |title=The Channel Tunnel Company, Limited. Experimental Work |date=5 July 1921 |work=17, col D |page=The Times |location=London
In March 1922, Fell gave notice on behalf of the Committee of his intention to move a motion in the Commons calling on the government to give permission for the resumption of work on the tunnel,{{cite news |title=The Channel Tunnel |date=27 March 1922 |work=23, col A |page=The Times |location=London |title=News in Brief: Channel Tunnel Plan |date=5 August 1922 |work=8, col D |page=The Times |location=London |title=Political Notes |date=20 July 1923 |work=12, col G |page=The Times |location=London
The following summer, the Channel Tunnel Company's AGM was told that in December 1922 the new prime minister Bonar Law had responded to a question from Viscount Curzon by saying "no decision has yet been taken, and I am not at present prepared to consider this question".{{cite news |title=The Channel Tunnel Company. Correspondence With Late Prime Minister., Merits Of The Scheme., "Work For Many Thousands.", Benefits To Southern Railway., No Request For Treasury Assistance. |date=22 June 1923 |work=22, col D |page=The Times |location=London
In retirement, Fell continued to promote the cause of the tunnel, writing to The Times in 1924 to lament that while the French Channel Tunnel Company had been given the legal power to construct a tunnel, and the engineers said it could be built, the British Company had no power to start work in Kent.{{cite news |title=Channel Tunnel. Powers For English Companies |date=1 May 1924 |work=12, col C |page=The Times |location=London
Personal life
Fell lived in Wimbledon for many years, at Lauriston House on Wimbledon Common. Lauriston House, a former residence of William Wilberforce, was filled with paintings by Fell, as well as containing a mural by the Swiss neo-classical artist Angelica Kauffmann. Fell supported the preservation of the Common, and opposed efforts to build on the course of the Royal Wimbledon Golf Course.
In 1877 he married Annie, the daughter of Baron von Rosenberg of Dresden, and in 1900 he married Matilda Wortabet, daughter of John Wortabet MD from Edinburgh.
Fell died suddenly on 29 December 1934, aged 84, in the Wimbledon branch of Barclays Bank. He was survived by his son and three daughters, and his grandson{{cite news |title=Marginal Seats Regained Conservative Success In East Anglia |date=27 October 1951 |work=The Times |pages=3, col D |location=London
Fell's estate was valued on probate at £113,371 (net),{{cite news |title=Deaths. Wills and Bequests |date=9 February 1935 |work=The Times |page=15, col C |location=London
References
References
- {{Rayment-hc. g. 2. (March 2012)
- ''O'Malley and Hardcastle's Reports on Election Petitions'' vol 5 (ed. by J.S. Sandars), Stevens and Haynes, 1910, p. 176-199.
- (6 July 1906). "Questions and Answers Circulated with the Votes {{ndash}} Yarmouth Election Petition".
- (4 December 1922). "Peace Treaties {{ndash}} Channel Tunnel".
- (2011-11-18). "Lost Forever - The Priceless Ceiling of Lauriston House".
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