Henry Wiggin

Wiggin as caricatured in Vanity Fair, April 1892

Sir Henry Samuel Wiggin, 1st Baronet DL (14 February 1824 – 12 November 1905) was an English metals manufacturer and Liberal Party (and later Liberal Unionist Party) politician.

Wiggin was born at Cheadle, Staffordshire, the son of William Wiggin of Cheadle. He owned a nickel and cobalt refining and manufacturing business. In 1870 he took over Evans & Askin, founded by Brooke Evans, which became Henry Wiggin & Co., manufacturers of speciality metal products.^[1] He was also a Director of the Midland Railway, the South Staffordshire Water Works Co., the Birmingham Joint Stock Bank, and Muntz's Metal Co. He was a governor of King Edward's School, Birmingham, J.P. for Worcestershire and Birmingham, and Deputy Lieutenant of Staffordshire.^[2]

In 1880 Wiggin was elected as a Member of Parliament (MP) for East Staffordshire and held the seat until the reorganisation of 1885. He was then elected MP for Handsworth and held the seat until 1892. Wiggin became a baronet on 17 June 1892.

Wiggin died at the age of 81.

Wiggin married Mary Elizabeth Malins 11 June 1851, and lived at Metchley Grange, Harborne, Birmingham. His son Henry Arthur Wiggin succeeded to the baronetcy.

A portrait of Wiggin, in oil, hangs in the Marriot Hotel in central Birmingham. For at least two decades the sitter's identity was lost, but was re-identified in 2014.^[3]

See also

• Brightray (alloy developed by Henry Wiggin and Co)
• Nimonic (family of alloys developed by Henry Wiggin and Co)

References

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Henry Wiggin