Thomas Bedford Bolitho (5 January 1835 – 22 May 1915) was a British banker and industrialist. He was a

Liberal Unionist 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 ...

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 St Ives in Cornwall from 1887 to 1900.

Early life

Born in

Penzance Penzance ( ; kw, Pennsans) is a town, civil parish and port in the Penwith district of Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is the most westerly major town in Cornwall and is about west-southwest of Plymouth and west-southwest of London. Situated ...

, Bolitho was the third son, and the only one to survive to adulthood, of Edward and Mary Bolitho (''née'' Stephens). He was educated at

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

Politics and industry

In 1882, Bolitho bought at auction, the Greenway and Galmpton estates, near Dartmouth for £42,500 plus approximately £3,000 for timber and fixtures. He also bought the tenements of Catchall,

Kerris Kerris ( kw, Kerys) is a settlement in west Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is three miles (5 km) south-west of Penzance in the civil parish of Paul. Kerris means "fort-place" in the Cornish language. Toponymy In 1302 a document spell ...

and Rospletha to add to the Hendra and Trevelloe estates he already owned. He was appointed

High Sheriff of Cornwall Sheriffs and high sheriffs of Cornwall: a chronological list: The right to choose high sheriffs each year is vested in the Duchy of Cornwall. The Privy Council, chaired by the sovereign, chooses the sheriffs of all other English counties, ot ...

in 1884. Following the elevation to the peerage of the St Ives MP, Sir John St Aubyn, Bolitho became MP at a by-election in 1887. He was re-elected in

1892 Events January–March * January 1 – Ellis Island begins accommodating immigrants to the United States. * February 1 - The historic Enterprise Bar and Grill was established in Rico, Colorado. * February 27 – Rudolf Diesel applies for ...

and 1895. He was unopposed on all three occasions. Bolitho was a director of

Barclays Bank Barclays () is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services. Barclays traces ...

and Bolitho, Williams, Foster, Coode, Grylls & Co. He was President of the

Institute of Bankers The London Institute of Banking & Finance is the oldest training and professional body for banking and financial services in England and Wales, and works internationally with partners to establish ethical and professional standards across the ...

from 1893 to 1895. He was also a director of the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

and owner of the Consolidated Tin Smelting Company.

Family life

He married, at the age of 58, Frances Jane Carus-Wilson in

Truro Cathedral The Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a Church of England cathedral in the city of Truro, Cornwall. It was built between 1880 and 1910 to a Gothic Revival design by John Loughborough Pearson on the site of the parish church of St Mary. It i ...

on 9 December 1893 – ''

The Cornishman ''The Cornishman'' is a weekly newspaper based in Penzance, Cornwall, England, United Kingdom which was first published on 18 July 1878. Circulation for the first two editions was 4,000. An edition is currently printed every Thursday. In early Fe ...

'' devoted a whole page to a report of the ceremonies. They had a daughter, Mary (1894–1977). He died, aged 80, on 22 May 1915 in Penzance. His estate was valued at £550,038 gross. There is a portrait by

Camille Silvy Camille-Léon-Louis Silvy (1834–1910) was a French photographer, primarily active in London. He learned photography from his friend, Count Olympe Aguado, in 1857, and became a member of the Société française de photographie in 1858. He th ...

in the National Portrait Gallery. His cousin, Thomas Robins Bolitho, (1840-1925), was an English banker, who served as

in 1890.

Trewidden Gardens

Bolitho continued his father's work in the garden at the family home of Trewidden, two miles west of Penzance. In particular, he filled the old opencast mine with tree ferns (''

Dicksonia antarctica ''Dicksonia antarctica'', the soft tree fern or man fern, is a species of evergreen tree fern native to eastern Australia, ranging from south-east Queensland, coastal New South Wales and Victoria to Tasmania. Anatomy and biology These ferns ...

'') newly imported from Australia. This is now known as the Tree Fern Dell, which has been described as the best stand of tree ferns in the northern hemisphere. Following the death of her husband in 1955, Bolitho's daughter, Mary Williams, returned to Trewidden and took over the garden. Alverne Bolitho (b. 1961), a cousin of Mary Williams, inherited the property when she died and has developed it into a popular tourist attraction.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bolitho, Thomas Bedford 1835 births 1915 deaths Barclays people High Sheriffs of Cornwall Liberal Unionist Party MPs for English constituencies Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for St Ives UK MPs 1886–1892 UK MPs 1892–1895 UK MPs 1895–1900 People educated at Harrow School People from Penzance