What was the place in history of Henry Fawcett, whose statue faces Blue Boar Row in Salisbury?
Henry Fawcett (26 August 1833-6 November 1884) was the son of William Fawcett, a Salisbury draper, was apparently destined for a brilliant future when, already a fellow of his Cambridge College, Trinity Hall, he was blinded in a shooting accident at the age of 25. However, in November 1863 he was appointed Professor of Political Economy at Cambridge, a post he held until his death. His parliamentary career (MP for Brighton, July 1865-January 1874; MP for Hackney, April 1874-November 1884) and his tenure of state office as Postmaster General from May 1880 ended only with his death. He established the Parcel Post on 1 August 1883, was a Privy Counsellor, the Lord Rector of Glasgow and the author of eleven books. His first biographer was Leslie Stephen, in 1886, and Winifred Holt wrote another in 1915. Bibliography: Boase, F.: Modern English biography, vol. 1: A-H (1892, repr. F. Cass, 1965), coll. 1027-1028. Goldman, L.: Fawcett, Henry (1833-1884) in Oxford Dictionary of National Biograp
