Charles Clive Bigham, 2nd Viscount Mersey, (18 August 1872 – 20 November 1956) was a British peer and Liberal politician.

Biography

The son of

John Bigham, 1st Viscount Mersey John Charles Bigham, 1st Viscount Mersey, (3 August 1840 – 3 September 1929) was a British jurist and politician. After early success as a lawyer, and a less successful spell as a politician, he was appointed a judge, working in commercial la ...

, Bigham was educated at

Cheam School Cheam School is a mixed preparatory school located in Headley, in the civil parish of Ashford Hill with Headley in Hampshire. Originally a boys school, Cheam was founded in 1645 by George Aldrich. History The school started in Cheam, Surrey. ...

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 ...

(where he was a

King's Scholar A King's Scholar is a foundation scholar (elected on the basis of good academic performance and usually qualifying for reduced fees) of one of certain public schools. These include Eton College; The King's School, Canterbury; The King's School ...

) and Sandhurst, and was commissioned into the

Grenadier Guards "Shamed be whoever thinks ill of it." , colors = , colors_label = , march = Slow: " Scipio" , mascot = , equipment = , equipment ...

in 1892. Finding soldiering uncongenial, he joined the reserves and travelled to the Ottoman Empire, Persia, Russia, China, and the Balkans, holding appointments as honorary

attaché In diplomacy, an attaché is a person who is assigned ("to be attached") to the diplomatic or administrative staff of a higher placed person or another service or agency. Although a loanword from French, in English the word is not modified accor ...

to various British embassies along the way. In 1897 he became special correspondent to ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' during the Greco-Turkish War, following the

Ottoman Army The military of the Ottoman Empire ( tr, Osmanlı İmparatorluğu'nun silahlı kuvvetleri) was the armed forces of the Ottoman Empire. Army The military of the Ottoman Empire can be divided in five main periods. The foundation era covers the ...

. At the end of the war he was appointed honorary

to the British embassy at Constantinople at the request of Sir Philip Currie, in order to act as British representative on the International Repatriation Commission for displaced Greek peasants in Thessaly. In 1899, he was transferred to the Peking embassy, and joined the Russian Army on campaign in Manchuria during the

Boxer Rebellion The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, the Boxer Insurrection, or the Yihetuan Movement, was an anti-foreign, anti-colonial, and anti-Christian uprising in China between 1899 and 1901, towards the end of the Qing dynasty, by ...

. In 1900, he served as intelligence office to Admiral Sir Edward Seymour during the abortive

Seymour Expedition The Seymour Expedition was an attempt by a multi-national military force to march to Beijing and relieve the Siege of the Legations and foreign nationals from attacks by government troops and Boxers in 1900. The Chinese army and Boxer fighter ...

, for which he was

mentioned in dispatches To be mentioned in dispatches (or despatches, MiD) describes a member of the armed forces whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which their gallant or meritorious action in the face ...

. For his service in China he was appointed CMG. He contested

Windsor Windsor may refer to: Places Australia * Windsor, New South Wales ** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area * Windsor, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland **Shire of Windsor, a former local government authority around Wi ...

for the Liberals in the 1906 general election, but narrowly lost. He was Deputy Speaker of the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...

from 1933 and served as

Liberal Chief Whip The Chief Whip of the Liberal Democrats is responsible for administering the whipping system in the party which ensures that members attend and vote in parliament when the party leadership requires a majority vote. Whips, of which two are appoin ...

in the

from 1944 to 1949. In 1946 he was sworn of the

Privy Council A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...

. Mersey died on 20 November 1956 and was succeeded in his peerages by his son

Edward Clive Bigham, 3rd Viscount Mersey Viscount Mersey, of Toxteth in the County Palatine of Lancaster, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1916 for the lawyer and politician John Bigham, 1st Baron Mersey. He had already been created Baron Mersey, of ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mersey, Clive Bigham, 2nd Viscount Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Viscounts in the Peerage of the United Kingdom Liberal Party (UK) hereditary peers 1872 births 1956 deaths Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Grenadier Guards officers British diplomats Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London Liberal Party (UK) parliamentary candidates British writers