Brigadier-General John Sanctuary Nicholson (19 May 1863 – 21 February 1924) was a British Army officer and

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...

. He was a

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 ...

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) from 1921 to 1924.

Early life and education

Born in Kensington,

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, the son of William Nicholson and his wife Isabella. He was educated at Harrow and then, in 1882, the Royal Military College at Sandhurst. He was commissioned in 7th Hussars in February 1884 and in 1886 he spent eight years in India with his regiment before in 1894 being sent to

Natal NATAL or Natal may refer to: Places * Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, a city in Brazil * Natal, South Africa (disambiguation), a region in South Africa ** Natalia Republic, a former country (1839–1843) ** Colony of Natal, a former British colony ( ...

BSAP, Second Boer War and First World War

The 7th Hussars joined a force at Mafeking to suppress a native rising in Matabeleland. During these operations he raised and commanded a corps of

British South Africa Police The British South Africa Police (BSAP) was, for most of its existence, the police force of Rhodesia (renamed Zimbabwe in 1980). It was formed as a paramilitary force of mounted infantrymen in 1889 by Cecil Rhodes' British South Africa Company, fro ...

(BSAP). He became Commandant-General of the BSAP and Inspector-General of Volunteers in Rhodesia from 1898 until 1903. The

Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the South ...

took place in neighbouring

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

from 1899 to June 1902, and to recognize his contribution, Nicholson was appointed a Companion of the

Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved Bathing#Medieval ...

(CB) in the South Africa honours list published on 26 June 1902. In 1903 he succeeded

Baden-Powell Lieutenant-General Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, ( ; (Commonly pronounced by others as ) 22 February 1857 – 8 January 1941) was a British Army officer, writer, founder and first Chief Scout of the wor ...

as Inspector-General of South African Constabulary and retired from the post as a colonel in 1907. During the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

he joined the British Expeditionary Force and from April 1915 to December 1918 was base commandant at Calais. He had been promoted to brigadier-general in 1916 and retired from the Army in 1920.

Political career

With a father and brother both being members of parliament Nicholson contested a seat in

East Dorset East Dorset was a local government district in Dorset, England. Its council met in Wimborne Minster between 2016 and 2019. The district (as Wimborne) was formed on 1 April 1974 by merging Wimborne Minster Urban District with Wimborne and Cran ...

in the 1910 general election. He lost by 426 votes to Captain Guest but after a petition Guest was unseated. Nicholson stood again as a Conservative candidate in a

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 ...

against Guests brother Henry Guest but was defeated again by a small margin. In the second general election of 1910 in December, he tried to get elected at Stafford but was defeated by 755 votes. In 1921, he was elected the

for the

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the Unite ...

constituency in a

following the death of the incumbent MP

William Burdett-Coutts William Lehman Ashmead Bartlett Burdett-Coutts (20 January 1851 – 28 July 1921), born William Lehman Ashmead-Bartlett, was an American-born British Conservative politician and social climber who sat in the House of Commons from 1885 to 1921 ...

. He was re-elected in the following two general elections in

1922 Events January * January 7 – Dáil Éireann, the parliament of the Irish Republic, ratifies the Anglo-Irish Treaty by 64–57 votes. * January 10 – Arthur Griffith is elected President of Dáil Éireann, the day after Éamon de Valera ...

and

1923 Events January–February * January 9 – Lithuania begins the Klaipėda Revolt to annex the Klaipėda Region (Memel Territory). * January 11 – Despite strong British protests, troops from France and Belgium occupy the Ruhr area, t ...

Death

Nicholson, who had never married, died on 21 February 1924 of pneumonia at his house at

South Audley Street South Audley Street is a major shopping street in Mayfair, London.'South Audley Street: Introduction', in Survey of London: Volume 40, the Grosvenor Estate in Mayfair, Part 2 (The Buildings), ed. F H W Sheppard (London, 1980), pp. 290–291. Br ...

, Mayfair aged 60. A

was held to replace him as an MP.

References

* *''Who's Who of British Members of Parliament: Volume III 1919-1945'', edited by M. Stenton and S. Lees (The Harvester Press 1976)

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nicholson, John 1863 births 1924 deaths British Army brigadiers Military personnel from London Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Companions of the Distinguished Service Order Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George Companions of the Order of the Bath Deaths from pneumonia in England People educated at Harrow School People of the Second Matabele War Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst UK MPs 1918–1922 UK MPs 1922–1923 UK MPs 1923–1924 7th Queen's Own Hussars officers British military personnel of the Second Boer War British Army cavalry generals of World War I British South Africa Police officers