Lieutenant-Colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colonel. ...

Sir Fleetwood Isham Edwards (21 April 1842 – 14 August 1910) was

Keeper of the Privy Purse The Keeper of the Privy Purse and Treasurer to the King/Queen (or Financial Secretary to the King/Queen) is responsible for the financial management of the Royal Households of the United Kingdom, Royal Household of the Monarchy of the United Kingd ...

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...

from 1895 to 1901.

Early life and personal life

After attending

Harrow School (The Faithful Dispensation of the Gifts of God) , established = (Royal Charter) , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent schoolBoarding school , religion = Church of E ...

, Edwards entered

Royal Military Academy Sandhurst The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS or RMA Sandhurst), commonly known simply as Sandhurst, is one of several military academies of the United Kingdom and is the British Army's initial officer training centre. It is located in the town of ...

in 1861. He received a commission in the

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...

in 1863. Edwards was married to Edith Smith-Masters, who died 9 March 1873. He remarried in 1880 to Mary Routledge Majendie.

Royal service

Edwards served as Aide-de-camp to the

Governor of Bermuda The Governor of Bermuda (fully the ''Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Somers Isles (alias the Islands of Bermuda)'') is the representative of the British monarch in the British overseas territory of Bermuda. For the purposes of this a ...

between 1867 and 1869, an Assistant Inspector of Works at the

Royal Arsenal The Royal Arsenal, Woolwich is an establishment on the south bank of the River Thames in Woolwich in south-east London, England, that was used for the manufacture of armaments and ammunition, proofing, and explosives research for the Britis ...

from 1870 to 1873, then as aide-de-camp to the Inspector General of Fortifications from 1873 to 1878, and later was attached to the special embassy at the Congress of Berlin in 1878. Edwards served as a

Groom-in-Waiting The office of Groom in Waiting (sometimes hyphenated as Groom-in-Waiting) was a post in the Royal Household of the United Kingdom, which in earlier times was usually held by more than one person at a time – in the late Middle Ages there might be d ...

from 1880 and 1895, whereupon he became

until her death in 1901. He was designated as an

Extra Equerry An equerry (; from French ' stable', and related to 'squire') is an officer of honour. Historically, it was a senior attendant with responsibilities for the horses of a person of rank. In contemporary use, it is a personal attendant, usually up ...

to the Queen from 1888 until her death. He served as an executor of Queen Victoria's will in 1901. During his time as a member of Queen Victoria's court, a zebra died under the care of Edwards, which was said to greatly annoy the Queen. Edwards was blamed for not contacting London Zoo, and the animal had to be buried at

Windsor Castle Windsor Castle is a royal residence at Windsor in the English county of Berkshire. It is strongly associated with the English and succeeding British royal family, and embodies almost a millennium of architectural history. The original cast ...

. Between 1901 and 1910, he served as a

Serjeant-at-Arms A serjeant-at-arms, or sergeant-at-arms, is an officer appointed by a deliberative body, usually a legislature, to keep order during its meetings. The word "serjeant" is derived from the Latin ''serviens'', which means "servant". Historically, s ...

in 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 ...

King Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria a ...

. He was appointed Paymaster of the Household in 1910 to

King George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. Born during the reign of his grandmother Que ...

, which duty he performed until his death later that year.

Honours

*1877:

Knight Commander of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved bathing (as a symbol of purification) as one ...

, KCB *2 February 1901: Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order, GCVO * Prussian Order of the Red Eagle, 2nd Class, with Star *Trustee of Queen Victoria's Jubilee Institute for Nurses

Cricket career

Edwards narrowly failed to get into the first XI during his time at Harrow School. He played a number of matches for the Royal Engineers, and for the Knickerbockers. In 1866, he made his only

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

appearance, playing for

I Zingari I Zingari (from dialectalized Italian , meaning "the Gypsies"; corresponding to standard Italian ') are English and Australian amateur cricket clubs, founded in 1845 and 1888 respectively. It is the oldest and perhaps the most famous of the 'wa ...

, a club he likely joined due to his close links with the Ponsonby family; many of whom he worked alongside at

court A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance ...

. During this match, against a Gentlemen of the South including

W. G. Grace William Gilbert Grace (18 July 1848 – 23 October 1915) was an English Amateur status in first-class cricket, amateur cricketer who was important in the development of the sport and is widely considered one of its greatest players. He played ...

and two of his brothers, Edwards top-scored for I Zingari in the first-innings, remaining 27

not out In cricket, a batter is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batter is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress. Occurrence At least one batter is not out at t ...

at the close of the innings. He only managed to score 12 runs in the second-innings, and his side lost by 121 runs to the Gentlemen. In 1870, he became a member of the

Marylebone Cricket Club Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London. The club was formerly the governing body of cricket retaining considerable global influence ...

(MCC) and he continued to play amateur cricket for I Zingari and other sides until 1872.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Edwards, Fleetwood 1842 births 1910 deaths People educated at Harrow School Royal Engineers officers People from Meopham English cricketers I Zingari cricketers Knights Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst Serjeants-at-arms of the House of Lords Companions of the Imperial Service Order