Lafone was born in the West Derby area of Liverpool, the fourth son of Samuel Lafone.[2] His half-brother was Samuel Fisher Lafone (1805-1871), a powerful and influential businessman based in Montevideo, dealing in cattle and hides, the wealthiest British resident in South America[3] who in 1843 made a spectacular land purchase in Uruguay, and had purchased a large estate on East Falkland.[4]
Career
He was educated privately,[2] and moved to Bermondsey in London where he joined the leather and hide factors business of Boutcher, Mortimore and Company.[5]
He was elected in 1870 as a member of the London School Board,[5] and was re-elected in 1873.[6]
In 1873[7] he purchased the large mansion house and estate of Hanworth Park, near London. At the 1885 general election he unsuccessfully contested the new Bermondsey division of Southwark,[5] losing by only 83 votes (1.2% of the total) to the sitting Liberal MP Thorold Rogers.[8] He had been selected by the local Conservative Association in preference to John Dumphreys, who had been put forward as a Conservative working man's candidate.[9]
However, he defeated Rogers at the 1886 election,[10] taking the seat with a swing of 3.4%.[8] In 1888, he chaired a committee set up to raise funds for the establishment of a series of South London Polytechnics.[11] The first of the three institutes was Goldsmiths College in New Cross, which opened in 1891, followed in 1892 by the Borough Road Polytechnic, of which Lafone became a governor.[12]
In 1852 Lafone married Jane Boutcher, daughter of William Boutcher of Grateley in Hampshire.[5] She died on 9 April 1885.[17] A son, Captain William Bauthcher Lafone, aged 40, was killed in action at Ladysmith in January 1900.[18] "In Captain Lafone the regiment has lost one of the kindest-hearted and best officers that ever led a company."[19]
Death
He died aged 90 on 26 April 1911, at his mansion house Hanworth Park having been ill for about four months.[20]
^The Diversified Networks of Samuel Lafone, pp.55-9 in Trading Environments: Frontiers, Commercial Knowledge and Environmental Transformation, 1750-1990, edited by Gordon M. Winder, Andreas Dix, New York, 2016 [1]
^ abcd"Biographies Of Candidates. England And Wales". The Times. London. 30 June 1886. p. 5.
^"The London School Board". The Times. London. 11 December 1873. p. 10.
^ abcdCraig, F. W. S. (1989) [1974]. British parliamentary election results 1885–1918 (2nd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. p. 47. ISBN0-900178-27-2.
^"Election Intelligence". The Times. London. 16 June 1885. p. 10.