The photograph opposite shows one of Thomas's election posters.

The election poster states the following:

But it was only fair, to remember that the Kingswinford Division had in its electorate of 12,000 voters, no less than 4,800 plural voters; property voters who resided outside, but pounced down upon the constituency on the day of the election. 

That would be remedied by a Bill which they expected would shortly be presented to Parliament, requiring that a man should have but the only vote to which he was entitled. If that salutary change was introduced into their laws he thought the position in the Kingswinford Division would be modified to that extent that they would have Mr. Thomas Parker on the platform as their honourable member, and hear of a testimonial being presented to the defunct political representative, Mr. Staveley Hill.

Their Tory friends would tell them that the majority of 1,500 was an enormous one, but to come to a little question of subtraction, he should imagine that his friend Parker would not command much sympathy from people of property. Perhaps a proportion of one in ten, and of the number of plural voters, probably 500 would support the Liberal candidate, all the remainder going for the representative of vested interests. Let them take off those 4,000 votes, and where would Mr. Hill be then?

This evening, at all events, they could present to their opponents a more interesting object lesson. The last election was fought upon their present electoral system. If the Liberal party was true to its pledges, if it were resolute in Parliament, the next election would be fought upon a Radical system. And then they would see a very different condition of affairs throughout the whole of this district.

They all knew Mr. Parker’s defeat was only one of a long list of reverses which they unfortunately had all sustained in this district. He was not going to enter into the full particulars of those reverses. He was going to affirm boldly tonight as he had said before, and as he should continue to say, and as events would prove, that Unionism had little to do with it. Were they as a Liberal party, prepared to accept the position that they saw the Licensed Victualler’s Association hold, in which, as he read the account of their meeting at Burton, the chairman, boldly declared that the licensed victuallers had the fate of the country in their hands, that they could, if they wished it, transfer the government of the country from one party to the other, and until they were satisfied they would continue to hold the roost.

He also said that the Liberals were ready in this district to fight the battle over again. He did not see many downcast countenances before him, and for his own part he felt none of the premonitory symptoms of a dying candidate. They were as determined as they were before the General Election that the stain; he could call it nothing else, which rested upon a great portion of this country, and which attached to a great industrial centre like this of being represented by a Tory, he could not find a worse word than that and that discredit should be removed as soon as possible.

Alderman Bantock, to whom the honour of making the presentation was entrusted, expressed the pleasure it gave him to be present. After reading the address accompanying the gift, he remarked that it did not make reference to the recipient’s character and the claims he had upon the constituency. Wolverhampton had a great appreciation of Mr. Parker. He might be spoken of as a great benefactor to the town, and was not only a man of ability, but of uprightness and honesty. During the election he was even called “Honest Tom Parker”. The people knew that what he said in one place, he would not turn his back on in another. And as regarded ability to represent a constituency, why the chief electrical advisor to the Government had spoken of Mr. Parker as the Edison of England, and his works, for excellence of mechanical arrangement, yet simplicity, were foremost in the country. 

They were, indeed under great obligation to such a gentleman, who came and brought his industry among them. At no time, continued Alderman Bantock, had he more confidence in the success of Liberalism and in that connection they must remember what had happened in their kindred nation across the water. Liberalism and then principals of fair trade and free trade had had a splendid victory in America, and such a victory as would cement the English speaking races more and more together, and all the high protection notions of Tories and American citizens, who ought never to have held such views, would be thrown to the winds. They would stand happy and united, loving one another, and setting the rest of the world an excellent example.

Alderman Bantock then moved the following resolution: “That this meeting of Liberals desire to express their gratitude to Mr. Thomas Parker for his services to Liberalism in the Kingswinford Division.”

The illuminated address read as follows:

Kingswinford Division of the County of Stafford.

To Thomas Parker, Esq., of Wolverhampton

Dear Sir,

On behalf of the Liberals of the Kingswinford Division, we desire to acknowledge the great services you have rendered to the Liberal cause by your vigorous candidature at the General Election of 1892.

Although your candidature was unsuccessful, your example and efforts will have an abiding influence throughout the constituency, and will more firmly establish the spirit and teachings of Liberalism in the minds of its people.

We therefore ask you to accept this address, and the accompanying gift, as some slight token of our appreciation and gratitude, and of our undiminished faith in those Liberal principals which you have striven to maintain.

Thomas Graham, Chairman
John T. Homer, Vice-Chairman
November 16th, 1892.

Mr. J. Addison seconded and was followed by a speech of thanks given by Mr. Parker.

Mr. Parker, whose rising to receive the presentation was the signal for a renewed outburst of enthusiasm, returned thanks. It was a difficult thing he said to return thanks comfortably. The fight, he said, had been undertaken simply so that the people should have a champion for their cause, and as a feeling of duty not influenced by any other considerations. He knew the difficulties and was fully rewarded by the assurance that the people thought he had done all that it could reasonably expected of a man to do. The effects of that contrast, would be, he hoped, the education of the people of the constituency, many of whom, unless that election had been fought, would have remained strangers to political education. By that means, above all others, the great cause of the people was to be helped.

For years the people had been kept in that ignorance which the capitalists thought so necessary for their condition, and he looked forward to the time when the people should be educated, and so demand their fair share in the country’s prosperity, and fight for the privileges so selfishly held from them during their period of ignorance. It was the power of the vote which could set the people free from that tyranny.

He had felt rather sore during the election, that he should have had the Church so antagonistic to him, believing himself that he was on the side of righteousness and justice. He had felt that here was something about the Church that he could not exactly understand, but since then he had made careful investigation, and he thought, on future occasions, he would be able to tell the reason.

Mr. Parker, alluding to commercial subjects, said the electrical industry in the town was but a growing one, and he hoped that unlike the bicycle industry, it would continue growing there. In conclusion he paid a high compliment to the energetic work done during the election by Mr. Homer, than whom he never wished to have a better or more cheerful friend.

Further speeches were given by Mr. C.E. Shaw, M.P., Mr. G.R. Thorne, Mr. S. Wilkes and Mr. Green.

The Chairman closed the proceedings and the new brougham was wheeled out, and Mr. and Mrs. Parker drove home in it amid the hearty cheers of the crowd.

Mrs. Parker and one of the children in the brougham, outside the Manor House. Courtesy of the library and archives of the Ironbridge Gorge Museum, at Coalbrookdale.

July 9th, 1895

Mr. Thomas Parker said that he knew something of the pinch of a poor home. His father had never earned more than £1 a week in his life, and during the last twelve years he had had to keep him. Speaking of the House of Lords he said that they could excuse them as they were an accident and their accidents had been most carefully arranged and had been fenced round by every force that law could bring to bear. It was a peg upon which the aristocracy of the country could stand.

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