McGill Libraries
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H3A 0C9
Identity area
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
Mitchell, Henry, 1824-1898
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1824-1898
History
Sir Henry Mitchell was born in October 1824, in Esholt, Yorkshire, England.
He was a textile merchant and philanthropist. He went to a local elementary school, and at the age of fourteen entered his father's worsted mill to learn the principles of textile manufacture. In 1841, he joined William Fison and Co. and in 1848, moved to A and S Henry & Co. as a buyer, becoming a partner in 1852. By that time, he was a leading authority on the worsted trade and influential in Bradford politics. He was a philanthropist and governor of the Bradford School Board and Grammar School, and Vice President of the Bradford’s Mechanic Institute. He was a Justice of the Peace and elected Mayor of Bradford in 1874. He helped found the Bradford Technical College between 1878 and 1882, providing substantial donations to it. He was knighted in 1887 for his services to education. In 1898, just before his death, he was made the first Honorary Freeman of the City of Bradford.
In 1851, he married Annie Gordon (1822–1886). He died on April 27, 1898, in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England.