Arthur Montagu Brookfield, KGStJ (18 March 1853 – 3 March 1940) was a British Army officer, diplomat, author and

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

politician who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

from 1885 to 1903.

Biography

Brookfield was the son of Rev.

William Henry Brookfield William Henry Brookfield (31 August 1809 – 12 July 1874) was an Anglican priest, Inspector of Schools, and chaplain-in-ordinary to Queen Victoria.. His son was the playwright Charles Brookfield. Biography William Henry Brookfield was th ...

, curate of St. Luke's, Berwick Street, and Jane Octavia, daughter of Sir Charles Elton, 6th Baronet. He was educated at

Rugby School Rugby School is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) in Rugby, Warwickshire, England. Founded in 1567 as a free grammar school for local boys, it is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain. ...

and

Jesus College, Cambridge Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's full name is The College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist and the glorious Virgin Saint Radegund, near Cambridge. Its common name comes fr ...

. He served as a lieutenant in the

13th Hussars The 13th Hussars (previously the 13th Light Dragoons) was a cavalry regiment of the British Army established in 1715. It saw service for three centuries including the Napoleonic Wars, the Crimean War and the First World War but then amalgamated ...

in India and retired from the regular army in 1880. He was Colonel commanding the 1st Cinque Ports Rifle Volunteers and was a JP for Sussex.Debretts House of Commons and the Judicial Bench 1886
/ref> At the 1885 general election, Brookfield was elected Conservative

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

(MP) for Rye. In parliament he was responsible for the Uniforms Act of 1894. During his time in parliament, he commanded a battalion of the Imperial Yeomanry in the Second Anglo-Boer War. Brookfield left his parliamentary seat in 1903 to become British

Consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states throu ...

at Montevideo, and in 1904 transferred as Consul to Danzig, then in West Prussia. In 1910 he became British Consul at

Savannah, Georgia Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia and is the county seat of Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the British colonial capital of the Province of Georgia and later t ...

, which was a shipping point for the cotton trade between the U.S. and Great Britain. He was appointed a Knight of Grace of the Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem in England (KGStJ) in August 1901.

Bibliography

Brookfield wrote five novels, a book of advice on giving speeches and an autobiographic sketch: *''The Bachelor'' (1879) *''Post Mortem: A Story'' (1881) *''The Autobiography of Thomas Allen V3'' (1882) *''The Apparition'' (1884) *''Simiocracy'' (1884) *''The Speaker's ABC'' (1892) *''Annals of a chequered life'' (1930)

Family

Brookfield married in 1877 Olive Harriet Hamilton, daughter of James Murray Hamilton of Preston, N.B. and of Buffalo, U.S.A. His brother

Charles Brookfield Charles Hallam Elton Brookfield (19 May 1857 – 20 October 1913) was a British actor, author, playwright and journalist, including for '' The Saturday Review''. His most famous work for the theatre was '' The Belle of Mayfair'' (1906). Brookfie ...

was an actor playwright and journalist.

References

External links

* * } 1853 births 1940 deaths People educated at Rugby School Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1885–1886 UK MPs 1886–1892 UK MPs 1892–1895 UK MPs 1895–1900 UK MPs 1900–1906 13th Hussars officers British Army personnel of the Second Boer War Alumni of Jesus College, Cambridge British diplomats {{England-Conservative-UK-MP-1850s-stub