Edward Carbutt

Carbutt was the youngest son of Francis Carbutt (1792–1874) of Chapel Allerton in Leeds. His father was a merchant and some-time mayor of Leeds and his elder sister Louisa Carbutt was an educationalist.[1] He was a linen and cloth merchant who became a justice of the peace, Lord Mayor of Leeds in 1848/1849, and a director of the Huddersfield and Manchester Railway.[2]

Edward Carbutt went into business as a mechanical engineer in Leeds. When he was 24 (circa 1862) he entered into partnership with the engineer Robinson Thwaites (1811–1884) in the Vulcan Iron Works at Bradford.[3] Carbutt and Thwaites exhibited a 'Patent Double-Action Self-Acting Steam Hammer' at the 1862 London Exhibition.[4] Carbutt and Thwaites petitioned for a further patent 'for the invention of improvements in hammers to be worked by steam or other fluid' in 1867.[5]

He was a member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and of the Institution of Civil Engineers.

He entered local politics and was Mayor of Leeds in 1878[6] and in this role laid the foundation stone of civic buildings. In 1880 he was elected as MP for Monmouth Boroughs and held the seat until 1886. On 1 October 1892, he was made a baronet, of Nanhurst in the parish of Cranleigh in the County of Surrey.[7] In 1896 he was appointed High Sheriff of Surrey.[8]

In 1887 Carbutt was elected President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. He represented the Institute on the committee of the National Physical Laboratory. He was also a vice president of the Iron and Steel Institute.[9] In 1891 he was concerned with the erection of a tower at Wembley to rival the Eiffel Tower in Paris.[10]

In 1874 Carbutt married Mary Rhodes. The baronetcy became extinct on his death.

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Sir Edward Carbutt