Lieutenant-Colonel Kenneth Robert Balfour (14 December 1863 – 7 September 1936)
was a British
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 ...
politician.
Background and personal life
Balfour purchased
Brownsea Island in
Poole Harbour in 1891. Following the introduction of electric lighting, the castle was gutted by fire in 1896. It was later rebuilt - with modern fire hydrants - and in 1901 Balfour put the island up for sale.
Military career
Balfour was commissioned in the
1st Dragoons
The Royal Dragoons (1st Dragoons) was a heavy cavalry regiment of the British Army. The regiment was formed in 1661 as the Tangier Horse. It served for three centuries and was in action during the First and the Second World Wars. It was amalgama ...
, where he was appointed a
lieutenant on 6 May 1885, and promoted
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 1 August 1892. He was placed on the reserve list, and volunteered for service with the
Imperial Yeomanry following the outbreak of the
Second Boer War in late 1899. He was appointed second in command of the 11th battalion Imperial Yeomanry, with the temporary rank of
major in the Army, on 10 February 1900, and left
Liverpool for
South Africa on the
SS ''Cymric'' in March 1900.
He was later promoted to
lieutenant-colonel.
Political career
Balfour and
Thomas Brassey, 2nd Earl Brassey
Thomas Allnutt Brassey, 2nd Earl Brassey TD, DL, JP, MInstNA, AMICE (7 March 1863 – 12 November 1919), styled Viscount Hythe between 1911 and 1918, was a British peer, who was for many years editor or joint editor of ''Brassey's Naval Annu ...
, then plain Thomas Allnut Brassey, stood for election as the Member of Parliament for
Christchurch in the
October 1900 general election.
At first Brassey seemed to have won by a slim majority of just 3 votes, but there were 11 spoiled votes which had not been marked properly by the presiding officers, 8 of them for Brassey and only 3 for Balfour, which reversed the result. Brassey alleged that there were electoral irregularities, although he stopped short of claiming corruption by Balfour, he did say that there were instances of impersonation and of voting by aliens. He lodged a court petition to overturn the result, but eventually withdrew the allegations.
The constituency of Christchurch at this time included the Borough of
Bournemouth
Bournemouth () is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area of Dorset, England. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of 183,491, making it the largest town in Dorset. It is situated on the Southern ...
, which in 1901 expanded to include the parish of
Winton, Dorset and
Moordown
Moordown is a suburb of Bournemouth, situated in the northern part of the borough. It was incorporated into the borough of Bournemouth in 1901, having previously been part of the Christchurch rural district.
Antiquity
Moordown, according to Mich ...
. To avoid duplication of road names, some of the roads in the added parish had to be changed, and in commemoration of the resolution of the electoral dispute, an unnamed lane marking the boundary between Winton and Moordown became Balfour Road, and the adjoining Church Road became Brassey Road.
[Kelly’s Directory for Bournemouth, 1903] Balfour remained MP for
Christchurch until 1906.
References
External links
*
1863 births
1936 deaths
Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
UK MPs 1900–1906
{{England-Conservative-UK-MP-1860s-stub