Politician and Activist
At the general election of 1868 Dixon declined an invitation to stand for Marylebone, though he frequently addressed political meetings. In August 1869 he resigned the editorship of the Athenæum. Soon afterwards he was appointed justice of the peace for Middlesex and Westminster.
Dixon took a leading part in establishing the Shaftesbury Park Estate and other centres of improved dwellings for the labouring classes. He was a member of the first School Board for London (1870). During the first three years of the School Board's existence Dixon's labours were extensive. In direct opposition to Lord Sandon he succeeded in carrying a resolution which thenceforth established military drill in all rate-paid schools in the metropolis.
About 1873 Dixon began a movement for opening the Tower of London free of charge to the public. To this proposal the prime minister Benjamin Disraeli assented, and on public holidays Dixon personally conducted crowds of working men through the building.
Read more about this topic: William Hepworth Dixon
Famous quotes containing the words politician and/or activist:
“A politician is a man who understands government and it takes a politician to run a government. A statesman is a politician who’s been dead ten or fifteen years.”
—Harry S. Truman (1884–1972)
“He was one whose glory was an inner glory, one who placed culture above prosperity, fairness above profit, generosity above possessions, hospitality above comfort, courtesy above triumph, courage above safety, kindness above personal welfare, honor above success.”
—Sarah Patton Boyle, U.S. civil rights activist and author. The Desegregated Heart, part 1, ch. 1 (1962)