Theodore Taylor (politician), Date of Birth, Date of Death
TweetTheodore Taylor (politician)
British politician
Date of Birth: 03-Aug-1850
Date of Death: 19-Oct-1952
Profession: politician
Nationality: United Kingdom
Zodiac Sign: Leo 
About Theodore Taylor (politician)
- Theodore Cooke Taylor (3 August 1850 – 19 October 1952) was a British businessman and Liberal politician.
- He was best known for pioneering profit-sharing in his business activities and for leading a movement against the opium trade. Taylor was born in Carlinghow, Batley, Yorkshire and was the eldest son of Joshua Taylor and his wife Alice née Cooke.
- Both sides of the family were involved in the textile industry: the Taylors had been making cloth since the eighteenth century in Batley, while Alice Cooke's father had established a carpet manufacturing business at Liversedge.Following education at Batley Grammar School and Silcoates School near Wakefield, Theodore joined the family business of J T & J Taylor Limited in 1866.
- In 1891 he became head of Taylor's and in the following year bought out the other partners to become its sole proprietor.
- His object in taking control was to institute a system of profit-sharing, and in 1896 he transformed the business into a private limited company.
- The new company, after paying five percent on capital, distributed the remaining profits to all workers employed for a year or more.
- Eventually the majority of the share ownership passed to the workforce, and at Taylor's death in 1952 more than 75% of the company's capital was shared between 2,000 workers.T C Taylor was politically aligned to the Liberal Party, and was elected to the West Riding County Council on its creation in 1889.
- At the 1900 general election he was elected as Member of Parliament for Radcliffe cum Farnworth in Lancashire.
- He held the seat for eighteen years, retiring from parliament when the seat was abolished in 1918. In 1906 Taylor began a campaign to halt the Indo-Chinese opium trade, winning the support of the new Liberal government of Henry Campbell-Bannerman.
- The trade was finally ended in 1917.Following his retirement from parliamentary politics, Taylor continued actively to manage the textile business, while promoting the benefits of profit-sharing.
- He was a member of the Congregational Church, which he supported financially.
- He also sought to promote education by allowing his employees to attend technical colleges and by providing scholarships to his former school, Silcoates.T C Taylor was twice married.
- In 1874 he married his first cousin, Sara Jane Ingraham.
- They had three children.
- Sara Jane and their eldest daughter, Evelyn Sarah, died in the influenza pandemic of 1919.
- His second marriage was in 1920 to Mary Isabella McVean.In 1950 Taylor celebrated his centenary.
- He was still the managing director and chairman of J T and T Taylor's, and the company's employees enjoyed a day trip to the seaside resort of Blackpool.
- He continued to travel from his home at Grassington, in Wharfedale, to the mills in Batley until three weeks before his death at the age of 102.
- His exact age at death was 102 years and 67 days.
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