Edward Dawes was an English Liberal Party

Liberal Party (UK)

The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...

 politician who served for one year as the Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 (MP) for the Isle of Wight

Isle of Wight (UK Parliament constituency)

Isle of Wight is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Created by the Great Reform Act for the 1832 general election, it covers the whole of the Isle of Wight and elects one Member of Parliament by the first-past-the-post voting system.-...

. Born in relative poverty on the island, in 1840 he was left property by his aunt the English adventuress Sophie Dawes, Baronne de Feuchères

Sophie Dawes, Baronne de Feuchères

Sophie Dawes , Baronne de Feuchères by marriage, was an English "adventuress" best known as a mistress of Louis Henry II, Prince of Condé....

.

He was elected at a by-election in May 1851, after the sitting Liberal MP John Simeon

Sir John Simeon, 3rd Baronet

Sir John Simeon, 3rd Baronet was a British politician and naval officer. He was the eldest son of Sir Richard Simeon, 2nd Baronet, and initially pursued a naval career before being returned for the Isle of Wight in 1847 as a Liberal Member of Parliament.In 1851 he converted to Catholicism, and...

 had resigned

Resignation from the British House of Commons

Members of Parliament sitting in the House of Commons in the United Kingdom are technically forbidden to resign. To circumvent this prohibition, a legal fiction is used...

 his seat. The election was extremely unruly, with a violent mob causing damage and the death of one voter from a heart attack. The Times

The Times

The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

reported "The constituency of the isle has been in a perfect ferment during the whole of the election and broken panes and broken heads have been among the results". Dawes (running on a policy of free trade

Free trade

Under a free trade policy, prices emerge from supply and demand, and are the sole determinant of resource allocation. 'Free' trade differs from other forms of trade policy where the allocation of goods and services among trading countries are determined by price strategies that may differ from...

) defeated his Conservative challenger Captain Hammond (who advocated protectionism

Protectionism

Protectionism is the economic policy of restraining trade between states through methods such as tariffs on imported goods, restrictive quotas, and a variety of other government regulations designed to allow "fair competition" between imports and goods and services produced domestically.This...

) by 46 votes.

However, at the general election in July 1852

United Kingdom general election, 1852

The July 1852 United Kingdom general election was a watershed election in the formation of the modern political parties of Britain. Following 1852, the Tory/Conservative party became, more completely, the party of the rural aristocracy, while the Whig/Liberal party became the party of the rising...

 he was defeated by the Conservative Party

Conservative Party (UK)

The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

 candidate, Francis Venables-Vernon-Harcourt

Francis Venables-Vernon-Harcourt

Colonel Francis Venables-Vernon-Harcourt was a British Conservative Party politician.-Background:Venables-Vernon-Harcourt was the ninth son of the Most Reverend Edward Venables-Vernon-Harcourt, Archbishop of York, who in turn was the third son of George Venables-Vernon, 1st Baron Vernon...

, who secured a majority of 101 votes. Dawes did not stand for Parliament

Parliament of the United Kingdom

The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...

 again, but devoted himself to the study of agricultural chemistry. He was the author of a number of tracts on the subject.

Dawes suffered from heart disease, and died while on a visit to the health resort of Sidmouth

Sidmouth

Sidmouth is a small town on the English Channel coast in Devon, South West England. The town lies at the mouth of the River Sid in the East Devon district, south east of Exeter. It has a population of about 15,000, of whom 40% are over 65....

, Devon

Devon

Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...

 in January 1856. He was buried in the family vault at St Helens, Isle of Wight

St Helens, Isle of Wight

St. Helens is a village and civil parish located on the eastern side of the Isle of Wight. The village is based around village greens. This is claimed to be the largest in England but some say the Village Green is the second largest. The greens are often used for cricket matches during the summer...

.

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