Born at East Bridgford, Staffs on 5 February 1860. As a boy had attended East Bridgford PM chapel and, became a local preacher in the Nottingham (Canaan Street) PM circuit. As he put it, 'Primitive Methodism made me an MP.'
He was educated at Magnus Grammar School, Newark, and became a tea merchant in the firm of Arthur Richardson and Sons. In 1906 he was elected MP for Nottingham (South) but lost the seat at the January 1910 general election and failed to regain it in December. He was returned for Rotherham at a by-election in February 1917 but did not stand there in 1918. At this period he described himself as a Lib-Lab, but not being union- sponsored did not need to take the Labour whip. As a Liberal he stood unsuccessfully, although with the endorsement of the Nottingham Trades Council, for Nottingham (Central) in 1918 and for Melton Mowbray in 1922, 1923 and 1924. As a wartime MP he opposed gambling and the wartime propensity for women to drink alcohol.In 1917 he became a Vice-President of the Lace Workers' Association. He died at Edwalton, Notts on 27 June 1936.