Plimsoll

Plimsoll, Samuel (1824-93), known, for his labours on behalf of English seamen, was born at Bristol and educated at Penrith and Sheffield, and was in early life a solicitor's clerk. He afterwards became clerk and subsequently manager of a brewery, on leaving which he started in business for himself. Being anxious to serve the seafaring classes, and having frequently observed that the sailors' lives were constantly jeopardised by shipowners sending out rotten hulks, he entered Parliament as a Liberal in 1868, and between that year and 1880, when he retired from parliamentary life, worked hard to reform the Shipping Acts, and with complete success. His public exposure, in speeches and writings, of the owners' indifference to the lives of their crews, created a deep impression and won the public to his side.