Henry Fawcett (1833-1884), Politician and political economist

Sitter in 22 portraits
In 1858 a shooting accident left Fawcett completely and permanently blind. He abandoned his legal practice and decided instead to pursue a political career from an academic base. He wrote a Manual of Political Economy that was published in 1863 and later that year was appointed Professor of Political Economy at Cambridge University. In 1865, he was the first blind man ever to be elected to parliament. A Liberal, he was known as an independent backbencher, criticising Gladstone's administration as being insufficiently radical. Fawcett advanced the cause of blind people by advocating a royal commission on the blind, which was established shortly after his death.