Ernest Claude Meysey-Thompson (18 February 1859 – 28 February 1944) was a British Army officer and

Liberal Unionist Party The Liberal Unionist Party was a British political party that was formed in 1886 by a faction that broke away from the Liberal Party. Led by Lord Hartington (later the Duke of Devonshire) and Joseph Chamberlain, the party established a political ...

(later Conservative Party) politician. He sat in the House of Commons from 1906 to 1922 as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Handsworth.

Early life

Meysey-Thompson was the sixth son of Sir Henry Meysey-Thompson (later 1st Baron Knaresborough) and his wife Elizabeth, the daughter of Sir John Croft, Bt. He was educated at Eton College and at Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1894, he married Alice Joicey, the daughter of

John Joicey John Joicey, DL (3 November 1816 – 15 August 1881) was a British Liberal Party politician and wealthy coal owner. He was the fourth son of George Joicey of Backworth, Northumberland and uncle of James Joicey, 1st Baron Joicey. With his young ...

, a coalmine-owner and former MP from

County Durham County Durham ( ), officially simply Durham,UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. is a ceremonial county in North East England.North East Assembly �About North East E ...

Political career

At the 1900 general election, he contested the Buckrose division of the East Riding, where he lost by 91 votes (1.2%) to the Liberal candidate Luke White. However, his father retired from the Commons at the Dissolution of Parliament in January 1906, was raised to the peerage as

Baron Knaresborough Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or knig ...

. As a member of the House of Lords he was disqualified from the House of Commons. At the general election later that month, Ernest stood for his father's old constituency of Handsworth in Staffordshire. He held the seat with a majority of 4,771 votes (21.6%) over his Liberal Party opponent Herbert Leon, a former MP for

Buckingham Buckingham ( ) is a market town in north Buckinghamshire, England, close to the borders of Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire, which had a population of 12,890 at the 2011 Census. The town lies approximately west of Central Milton Keynes, sou ...

. He was re-elected at both the

January January is the first month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars and is also the first of seven months to have a length of 31 days. The first day of the month is known as New Year's Day. It is, on average, the coldest month of the ...

and December elections in 1910. The Liberal Unionists had merged with the Conservative Party in 1912, and at the 1918 general election Meysey-Thompson was re-elected as a Coalition Conservative. He stood down from Parliament at the 1922 general election.

Military career

Meysey-Thompson was an officer in the part-time Yeomanry, being commissioned into the Yorkshire Hussars on 22 August 1894, promoted to

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

on 21 May 1902, and retiring with the rank of

Major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

on 30 September 1909. On the outbreak of World War I he was made a temporary major on 12 August 1914 and threw himself into raising units of artillery volunteers for

Kitchener's Army The New Army, often referred to as Kitchener's Army or, disparagingly, as Kitchener's Mob, was an (initially) all-volunteer portion of the British Army formed in the United Kingdom from 1914 onwards following the outbreak of hostilities in the Fi ...

. These included the 161st (Yorkshire), Brigade,

Royal Field Artillery The Royal Field Artillery (RFA) of the British Army provided close artillery support for the infantry. It came into being when created as a distinct arm of the Royal Regiment of Artillery on 1 July 1899, serving alongside the other two arms of t ...

(RFA) (authorised 10 March 1915) followed by the 164th (Rotherham) (9 April), 168th (Huddersfield) (20 April), 175th (Staffordshire) and 176th (Leicestershire) (both 12 May) RFA brigades.Meysey-Thompson query at Great War Forum.
/ref> As 'Local Units',''ie'' those raised outside the Army mechanism, these are comparable to the famous ' Pals battalions' of locally raised infantry. On 24 June 1915 Meysey-Thompson was gazetted as a Lieutenant-Colonel to command 175th (Staffordshire) Brigade, RFA, in 34th Division. He was attached to an RFA brigade on the

Western Front Western Front or West Front may refer to: Military frontiers *Western Front (World War I), a military frontier to the west of Germany *Western Front (World War II), a military frontier to the west of Germany *Western Front (Russian Empire), a majo ...

Armentières Armentières (; vls, Armentiers) is a commune in the Nord department in the Hauts-de-France region in northern France. It is part of the Métropole Européenne de Lille. The motto of the town is ''Pauvre mais fière'' (Poor but proud). Geogra ...

to gain experience, and then returned to England to complete the training of 175th Brigade. He was still raising new units, now for the Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA), who manned the heavier guns. These included the 144th (York), 147th (Leicester), 148th (Smethwick), 149th (Wakefield), 150th (Rotherham) and 157th (Leicester) Heavy Batteries, RGA. By the time the 157th (Leicester) Battery was authorised (25 October), Mr C.A. Bury of Heworth Green, York, was listed as raising the unit on Meysey-Thompson's behalf because he was on service,WO Instruction No 235, 25 October 1915. having been appointed on 1 October 1915 to command the Divisional Ammunition Column, RFA, for

5th Division In military terms, 5th Division may refer to: Infantry divisions *5th Division (Australia) * 5th Division (People's Republic of China) *5th Division (Colombia) *Finnish 5th Division (Continuation War) *5th Light Cavalry Division (France) *5th Moto ...

on the Western Front.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Meysey-Thompson, Ernest Claude 1859 births 1944 deaths Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge British Army personnel of World War I Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Liberal Unionist Party MPs for English constituencies People educated at Eton College Royal Field Artillery officers UK MPs 1906–1910 UK MPs 1910 UK MPs 1910–1918 UK MPs 1918–1922 Yorkshire Hussars officers Younger sons of baronets