Description:This is an abridged version of his biography, the full version is available on this page as a download.
Councillor Henry Loveridge, whose recent appointment to the chair of the Finance Committee of the Handsworth Urban District Council constitutes him our suburban Chancellor of the Exchequer, is the worthy successor of such able financiers as Mr Joseph Wainwright, J.P., for many years an indefatigable member of the Local Board and latterly Councillor T E Forsyth, J.P., the present Chairman of the District Council. A native of Handsworth, Councillor Loveridge is a life-long resident in the parish, his interests outside his business at any rate, are entirely bound up in the district.
He was born in 1854 and is now in his 46th year. Educated at the Edward Street Branch of the King Edward Grammar School under Mr John Temperley, he passed through all the grades in that model Institution and was eventually appointed assistant teacher there. Mr Loveridge was for many years chief assistant to one of the large firms in the city; he then became managing clerk for the late William Lock, Jeweller, Hockley Hill, a position he occupied for 18 years; upon the death of Mr Lock he, in partnership with Mr J G Parkes, took to the business and has remained at the head of the concern ever since.
For eight or nine years he was associated with the late J S Wright in Sunday morning and Sunday afternoon class meetings at Great King Street Chapel and he remembers with affectionate admiration the lovable disposition of that gentleman and the ardour with which he and those who came under the influence of his great personal magnetism, pursued Christian enterprises. When Mr Wright died, Mr Loveridge joined the Handsworth Parish Church with which he has now been connected over sixteen years. He has never spared himself when duty called and is at the present time one of the school managers, a member of the School Finance Committee, a sidesman, Secretary of the Staffordshire Voluntary Schools Association and Secretary to the Archidiaconal and Ruridicanal Conferences. His multifarious religious duties do not even end here. He is a governor of the Handsworth Grammar School, representing the District Council upon this educational body. As Secretary of the purchase fund of the Calthorpe Home for Waifs and Strays, of which his wife is Vice-President, he has devoted many hours to furthering the noble work of rescuing young children from the streets and slums, in which that Institution is engaged. The home was opened three or four years ago; there was then a debt on the building of £1,450. In three years this sum has been reduced to £500 and the Committee are sanguine enough to hope that the purchase will be completed in the near future.
Like many other eminent Handsworthians, Mr Loveridge is a Freemason. He has passed through the chairs of St James’ Lodge, Handsworth, the master’s chair of St James’ Chapter, the master’s chair of the religious order of St John of Jerulsalem and Knight Templars and is also a member of the Mark Mason degree, a provincial officer in the Knight Templar’s degree and a provincial officer in the Royal Arch degree.
In politics the subject of our sketch is a staunch Conservative and it is proof of his popularity that a vacancy occurring on the District Council a little over two years ago, he was returned unopposed as a Conservative member for Heathfield Ward. Upon taking his seat he was elected a member of the Finance, Sanitary, Park and Fire Brigade, Technical Instruction and Free Libraries’ Committees and is now Chairman of the Finance Committee and Technical Instruction Sub-Committee. Mr Loveridge’s views on local questions are fairly well known, but it is not out of place to briefly recapitulate them here. He is an ardent advocate of sanitary principles. Believing that it is the primary duty of a District Council to make the sanitation of the parish it governs as perfect as is humanly possible, he loses no opportunity of speaking and voting in favour of such sanitary improvements as the growth of the district and inevitable wear and tear necessitate from time to time. Public baths he hopes to see erected in the course of the next few years, but in his opinion the time is not yet ripe for an agitation for the immediate provision of them.
A set of baths which would be creditable to the size and importance of Handsworth would cost not less than £16,000 or £17,000 at the lowest estimate and the parish being so straggling, two sets would probably be found necessary. Mr Loveridge has promised to use his influence in maintaining the 3s rate and not unnaturally shrinks from such an expenditure over and above the heavy liabilities the Council have recently incurred. A year or two will see a great access to the money at the disposal of the Council and it should then be possible to furnish the ratepayers with the baths desiderated at much greater advantage than could be done now.
Mr Loveridge was married 25 years ago and his home life at Farfield, Church Lane, is of a refined and beautiful character. He has one child, a daughter, now happily married.
When Handsworth shall be an incorporated borough with its Mayor, Aldermen and Corporation, one of the first mayors of the town will, unless we are vastly mistaken, be the gentleman whose portrait we add this month to “Our Picture Gallery". Handsworth is almost ready for incorporation now; in less than five years it will have grown to such dimensions that an application for a charter will be in no wise presumptive.