Charles Pearson

Charles Pearson (4 October 1793 – 14 September 1862) was Solicitor to the City of London, a reforming campaigner, and – briefly – Member of Parliament for Lambeth. He campaigned against corruption in jury selection, for penal reform, for the abolition of capital punishment, and for universal suffrage. Pearson also used his political influence to promote improvements to transport communications, campaigning for the construction of an underground railway during twenty years.

In 1862, as Pearson, his wife Mary and engineer John Fowler were touring the construction site of the underground railway, the body of Robert Waugh was discovered in the trench.