Joseph Albert Pease

A carte-de-visite portrait of Joseph Albert Pease (1860-1943), later 1st Baron Gainford. The Pease family were one of the great Quaker industrialist families of the nineteenth century, heavily involved in woollen manufacturing, railways, coal mines, and politics, as well as many philanthropic and humanitarian activities.

Born at Darlington on 17 January 1860, he was known as Jack Pease until his elevation to the peerage in 1917. He was the second and youngest son of Sir Joseph Pease, 1st Baronet, of Hutton Hall, Guisborough, and Mary, daughter of Alfred Fox. His paternal grandparents were Joseph Pease, the railway pioneer and first Quaker MP, and Emma Gurney, first cousin of Elizabeth Fry (née Gurney). He was educated at Grove House, Tottenham, a Quaker school, and at Trinity College, Cambridge.

He was elected Member of Parliament for Tyneside in 1892, a seat he held until 1900. He contested and won a by-election for Saffron Walden in May 1901 and represented that constituency until 1910, then Rotherham between 1910 and 1916. He was a member of Herbert Asquith's Liberal cabinet between 1910 and 1916 and also served as Chairman of the BBC between 1922 and 1926. He was then its vice-chairman until 1932. He was also a director of Pease and Partners Ltd and other colliery companies, and Deputy Chairman of the Durham Coal Owners Association.

In 1886 he married Ethel, daughter of Sir Henry Havelock-Allan, 1st Baronet. They had one son, Joseph, and two daughters. Lady Gainford died in October 1941. Lord Gainford died on 15 February 1943, aged 83.

Photographed in 1866 by Camille Silvy of London.