Algernon Edwyn Burnaby (9 April 1868 – 13 November 1938) of

Baggrave Hall Baggrave Hall is an 18th-century Grade II* listed country house in the parish of Hungarton, Leicestershire, England. It is a two and three-storey building in Palladian style, constructed in ashlar in the 1750s, with a Swithland slate hipped roof ...

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire t ...

, was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

landowner, soldier, and

Justice of the Peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

, and a cousin of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. He was Master of the Quorn Hunt.

Early life

A descendant of

Andrew Burnaby Andrew Burnaby (16 August 1732 – 9 March 1812) was an English clergyman and travel writer, mainly about the American colonies and Italy. Life He was born in Asfordby, Leicestershire, on 16 August 1732, the eldest son and namesake of the Revere ...

(1732–1812), who had married the heiress of the Edwyn family of Baggrave, Bernard Burke, ''A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain'' (Burke Publishing Company, 1921), pp. 241–242: "BURNABY OF BAGGRAVE HALL, ALGERNON EDWYN BURNABY, of Baggrave Hall, co. Leicester, J.P., Major Terr. Force Reserve, late Lieut Royal Horse Guards and Capt. Westmorland and Cumberland Yeomanry" Burnaby was born in the parish of

St George Hanover Square St George Hanover Square was a civil parish created in 1724 in the Liberty of Westminster, Middlesex, which was later part of the metropolitan area of London, England. The creation of the parish accompanied the building of St George's, Hanove ...

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Bu ...

, the son of Major-General Edwyn Sherard Burnaby, who went on to become a member of parliament, and of his wife Louisa Julia Mary Dixie, daughter of

Sir Willoughby Wolstan Dixie, 8th Baronet ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as p ...

. He had an older sister, Hilda Louisa. Their mother died in 1881, and their father in 1883, when Burnaby was fifteen, and he thus inherited the Baggrave estate in Leicestershire as a minor.''

Burke's Peerage Burke's Peerage Limited is a British genealogical publisher founded in 1826, when the Irish genealogist John Burke began releasing books devoted to the ancestry and heraldry of the peerage, baronetage, knightage and landed gentry of Great Br ...

'' vol. 1 (2003), p. 1073 Edwyn Burnaby's land agent, William Beeson, was sole executor of his will. Burnaby was educated at

Eton College Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, C ...

Life

After Eton, Burnaby was commissioned into the

Royal Horse Guards The Royal Regiment of Horse Guards (The Blues) (RHG) was a cavalry regiment of the British Army, part of the Household Cavalry. Raised in August 1650 at Newcastle upon Tyne and County Durham by Sir Arthur Haselrigge on the orders of Oliver Cr ...

and later served as a Captain in the

Westmorland and Cumberland Yeomanry The Westmorland and Cumberland Yeomanry was a Yeomanry Cavalry regiment of the British Army with its origins in 1798. The regiment provided troops for the Imperial Yeomanry during the Second Boer War and served on the Western Front in World War I ...

and as a Major in the

Territorial Force Reserve The Territorial Force was a part-time volunteer component of the British Army, created in 1908 to augment British land forces without resorting to conscription. The new organisation consolidated the 19th-century Volunteer Force and yeomanry ...

. In 1890, Burnaby and his friend Count Elliott Zborowski together planned the Quorn Hunt's Midnight Steeplechase, a National Hunt race in the middle of the night over twelve furlongs, with the riders dressed in night shirts and top hats and the fences lit by oil lamps. Burnaby was the triumphant winner, gaining a silver cup provided by Zborowski. The race is commemorated in sporting prints. On 13 April 1896, Burnaby married Sybil Cholmondeley, only daughter of

Hugh Cholmondeley, 2nd Baron Delamere Hugh Cholmondeley, 2nd Baron Delamere (; 3 October 1811 – 1 August 1887), styled The Honourable from 1821 until 1855, was a British peer and politician. Personal Hugh Cholmondeley was the eldest son of Thomas Cholmondeley. His mother was He ...

and Augusta Emily Seymour, herself a daughter of Sir George Hamilton Seymour. They were divorced in 1902, having had one son, Hugh Edwyn Burnaby, born at

in 1897. On 18 July 1908, at

York Harbor, Maine York Harbor is a census-designated place (CDP) in the town of York in York County, Maine, United States. The population was 3,033 at the 2010 census. York Harbor is a distinguished former Gilded Age summer colony noted for its resort architect ...

, Burnaby married secondly Minna Field, a daughter of a rich American, Henry Field, of Chicago, and a niece of Marshall Field. He thus gained a young step-son, Henry Field. Sybil Burnaby died on 26 May 1911, aged 39, two weeks after falling out of a window at home in Wilton Place and suffering severe injuries. At an inquest, the coroner found that the fall was purely accidental. Burnaby's aunt Louisa Burnaby (1832–1918) married Charles Cavendish-Bentinck and was the mother of

Cecilia Bowes-Lyon, Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne Cecilia Nina Bowes-Lyon, Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne (' Cavendish-Bentinck; 11 September 1862 – 23 June 1938) was the mother of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, maternal grandmother and godmother of Queen Elizabeth II, and great-g ...

, grandmother of

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...

. Burnaby was Master of the Quorn Hunt from 1912 to 1932. A

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

began in 1929, and subscriptions to the hunt began to fall. Burnaby then recruited

Sir Harold Nutting The Nutting Baronetcy, of St Helens in Booterstown in the County of Dublin, is a title in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 12 January 1903 for John Nutting. He was Chairman of the firm E and J Burke Ltd and a Justice of ...

, "newly rich from bottling Guinness", as joint Master, and quipped "We don't want your personality, we want your purse!" Jane Ridley has estimated that during the following ten years Nutting spent about £15,000 a year on the Quorn, . Burnaby died on 13 November 1938. His son and heir, Hugh Edwyn Burnaby, sold the Baggrave Hall estate in 1939 and settled in Oxfordshire. His step-mother, Burnaby's second wife, settled in Coconut Grove,

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

, and died there in May 1952. Edward, Prince of Wales, rode with the Quorn in his youth and recalled Burnaby in his memoirs of 1951: Hugh Edwyn Burnaby died in December 1950, leaving a widow, Vilma Dorothea Ludourka Todenhagen, whom he had married in 1923, and a substantial fortune. Ludourka Burnaby lived until 1982. Burnaby's sister Hilda died unmarried in August 1953, aged 87. Burnaby's step-son Henry Field became a significant anthropologist and died in Florida in 1986.Henry Field
(obituary) in ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

'' dated 9 January 1986

References

External links

Family papers etc. relating to Burnaby family of Baggrave Hall, Leicester
at the The National Archives (United Kingdom), National Archives {{DEFAULTSORT:Burnaby, Algernon 1868 births 1938 deaths People educated at Eton College Royal Horse Guards officers Deputy Lieutenants of Leicestershire English landowners Masters of foxhounds in England People from Harborough District Westmorland and Cumberland Yeomanry officers