1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Collings, Jesse

COLLINGS, JESSE (1831–1920), British politician, was born at Littleham, Exmouth, Devon., Jan. 9 1831. He was partly educated at home, and also at Church House school, Stoke, near Plymouth. In 1866 he settled in Birmingham, where he founded the mercantile firm of Collings & Wallis, and had a highly successful business career. Entering municipal life, he was intimately associated with Joseph Chamberlain, whose devoted henchman he became. In 1878 he was elected mayor of Birmingham, and in 1879 retired from business. In 1880 he was elected as Liberal M.P. for Ipswich, and during this period became prominent as an advocate of the Radical land policy, known as “three acres and a cow.” In Dec. 1885 Lord Salisbury’s Government was defeated on an amendment to the Address concerning this policy, moved by Mr. Collings. In 1886 he entered the Liberal Government as parliamentary secretary to the Local Government Board, but resigned with Chamberlain over Gladstone’s Home Rule policy. The same year he successfully contested the Bordesley division of Birmingham as a Liberal-Unionist. In 1895, on the appointment of Chamberlain to the position of Colonial Secretary in the Unionist Government, Collings became under-secretary to the Home Office, retaining the post until 1902. He resigned his seat in Parliament in 1918. He was always interested in agricultural affairs, and was the founder (1872) of the Rural Labourers’ League and also of the Exminster industrial school. In 1906 he published Land Reform, in 1914 The Colonization of Rural Britain, and his Autobiography, written in conjunction with Sir J. L. Green, appeared in 1920. He died at Edgbaston, Birmingham, Nov. 20 1920.