Jabez Balfour as Liberal candidate in Croydon at the general election but lost to the Conservatives. He also stood unsuccessfully for the Liberals at Walworth in 1886. In 1880 he was appointed chairman of the Northampton Street Tramways. Together with City financiers Leopold Salomons and Sir John Pender, Balfour founded the investment underwriting firm the "Trustees, Executors and Securities Insurance Corporation, Limited" in December 1887. In 1892, he was at the centre of a scandal over the failure of a series of companies which he set up and controlled, starting with the London and General Bank and culminating in the Liberator Building
George Hardy (Liberal politician) George Hardy (Liberal politician) George Alexander Hardy (29 December 1851 – 2 October 1920) was an English businessman and Liberal Party politician who served for many years as a councillor in South London, and briefly as a Member of Parliament (MP) for the Stowmarket division of Suffolk. Hardy was born in the Islington district of North London, and went into business in the City of London. He was a member of the Greenwich Vestry, and later served as a councillor on Camberwell Borough Council. In the March 1901 elections for the London County Council, Hardy was elected as a Progressive