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 ...

Sir Edward Alexander Henry Legge-Bourke, (16 May 1914 – 21 May 1973), was a British politician, and a

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 of ...

for

Isle of Ely The Isle of Ely () is a historic region around the city of Ely in Cambridgeshire, England. Between 1889 and 1965, it formed an administrative county. Etymology Its name has been said to mean "island of eels", a reference to the creatures that ...

from 1945 until his death in 1973.

Early life

Legge-Bourke was born as the only child of Lt. Nigel Walter Legge-Bourke (1889–1914), who was killed in action in World War I in October 1914, and Lady Victoria Alexandrina Wynn-Carington (1892–1966). Through his paternal grandfather, soldier and courtier Henry Legge, he was a great-grandson of the 5th Earl of Dartmouth. His maternal grandfather was the Marquess of Lincolnshire, and his maternal grandmother, the Hon. Cecilia Margaret ''née'' Harbord, was the daughter of the 5th Baron Suffield. He served alongside

Jock Colville Sir John Rupert Colville, CB, CVO (28 January 1915 – 19 November 1987) was a British civil servant. He is best known for his diaries, which provide an intimate view of number 10 Downing Street during the wartime Premiership of Winston Churchi ...

(his half–second cousin) as a

Page of Honour A Page of Honour is a ceremonial position in the Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. It requires attendance on state occasions, but does not now involve the daily duties which were once attached to the office of page. The on ...

from 1926. 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 ...

and the

Royal Military College, Sandhurst The Royal Military College (RMC), founded in 1801 and established in 1802 at Great Marlow and High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, England, but moved in October 1812 to Sandhurst, Berkshire, was a British Army military academy for training infantry a ...

, Legge-Bourke was commissioned into the Royal Horse Guards in 1934. He served there throughout the World War II, rising to 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 ...

. In 1941, he was liaison officer, GHQ, British Forces in Greece, and served with the 7th Armoured Division at El Alamein.

Politics

Legge-Bourke was elected Member of Parliament for the

in 1945 as a member of the

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

. His gain from the

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

James de Rothschild James de Rothschild may refer to: * James de Rothschild (politician) (1878–1957), French-born British politician and philanthropist * James Mayer de Rothschild James Mayer de Rothschild, Baron de Rothschild (born Jakob Mayer Rothschild; 15 M ...

was one of the few Conservative gains of the election. In 1954 he resigned his membership of the official Conservative party and sat as an independent conservative member for a period. In 1960 he was invested as a KBE. As an

East Anglia East Anglia is an area in the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, a people whose name originated in Anglia, in ...

n representative, he was particularly interested in land drainage and was vice-President of the Association of Drainage Authorities. A popular local MP (he was made a Freeman by

Wisbech Municipal Borough Wisbech was a municipal borough in the Isle of Ely, Cambridgeshire in England from 1835 until 1974. History The corporation met at the Wisbech Town Hall, North Brink. It operated the Port of Wisbech, Wisbech Market, the borough police and th ...

in 1973), he did instruct Prime Minister

Clement Attlee Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, (3 January 18838 October 1967) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955. He was Deputy Prime Mini ...

to "Change the bloody record" as he threw a coin at him – an incident which had him briefly debarred from the Commons. Legge-Bourke chaired the

1922 Committee The 1922 Committee, formally known as the Conservative Private Members' Committee, is the parliamentary group of the Conservative Party in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. The committee, consisting of all Conservative backbench member ...

of Conservative backbenchers from 1970 to 1972, when he resigned due to poor health.

Family

Legge-Bourke married Catherine Jean Grant (1917–2007), daughter of Colonel Sir Arthur Grant of Monymusk, 10th Bt, and Evelyn Alice Lindsay Wood. They had three children: * William Nigel Henry Legge-Bourke (1939–2009); married the Hon. Elizabeth Shân Josephine Bailey, daughter of the 3rd Baron Glanusk, and had issue. * Heneage Legge-Bourke (born 1948); married Maria Clara de Sá-Carneiro, and had issue (including Eleanor Legge-Bourke). * Victoria Lindsay Legge-Bourke (born 1950). He inherited a fraction of the

Lord Great Chamberlain The Lord Great Chamberlain of England is the sixth of the Great Officers of State (United Kingdom), Great Officers of State, ranking beneath the Lord Privy Seal, Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal and above the Lord High Constable of England, Lord Hi ...

ship of England, succeeded by his son, William. His daughter-in-law, the Hon.

Shân Legge-Bourke Dame Elizabeth Shân Josephine Legge-Bourke (née Bailey; born 10 September 1943) is a Welsh landowner who served as the second Lord Lieutenant of Powys. The only child of Wilfred Bailey, 3rd Baron Glanusk, Legge-Bourke inherited the Glanusk P ...

Lord Lieutenant of Powys This is an incomplete list of people who have served as Lord Lieutenant for Powys. Prior to 1974, the Monarch was represented in the area by the Lord Lieutenant of Montgomeryshire, the Lord Lieutenant of Radnorshire and the Lord Lieutenant of Breck ...

, was made a

lady-in-waiting A lady-in-waiting or court lady is a female personal assistant at a court, attending on a royal woman or a high-ranking noblewoman. Historically, in Europe, a lady-in-waiting was often a noblewoman but of lower rank than the woman to whom sh ...

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 her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...

. His granddaughter, Alexandra "Tiggy" Legge-Bourke (now Pettifer), was nanny to Princes

William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

and

Harry Harry may refer to: TV shows * ''Harry'' (American TV series), a 1987 American comedy series starring Alan Arkin * ''Harry'' (British TV series), a 1993 BBC drama that ran for two seasons * ''Harry'' (talk show), a 2016 American daytime talk show ...

. Another granddaughter, Eleanor Legge-Bourke, is a television personality in France. Legge-Bourke died at his home in London on 21 May 1973, aged 59, after an operation for a stomach tumour. The

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

to replace him was won by Liberal

Clement Freud Sir Clement Raphael Freud (24 April 1924 – 15 April 2009) was a German-born British broadcaster, writer, politician and chef. The son of Ernst L. Freud and grandson of Sigmund Freud, Clement moved to the United Kingdom from Nazi Germany as ...

. Legge-Bourke and his wife were cremated and their ashes buried in

Ely Cathedral Ely Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, is an Anglican cathedral in the city of Ely, Cambridgeshire, England. The cathedral has its origins in AD 672 when St Etheldreda built an abbey church. The presen ...

Notes and references

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Legge-Bourke, Harry 1914 births 1973 deaths British Army personnel of World War II Burials at Ely Cathedral Chairmen of the 1922 Committee Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Deaths from cancer in England Deaths from stomach cancer Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire People educated at Eton College Royal Horse Guards officers UK MPs 1945–1950 UK MPs 1950–1951 UK MPs 1951–1955 UK MPs 1955–1959 UK MPs 1959–1964 UK MPs 1964–1966 UK MPs 1966–1970 UK MPs 1970–1974