Major Sir Joseph Thomas Firbank (16 May 1850 – 7 October 1910) 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.

Early life

Joseph Thomas Firbank was born in Britain in 1850. He was one of seven children of

Joseph Firbank Joseph Firbank (1819 – 29 June 1886) was an English railway contractor. Early life Joseph Firbank was born at Bishop Auckland in 1819, the son of a Durham miner. At the age of seven he was sent to work in a colliery, but he attended a night-sc ...

(1819–1886), who had begun work at the age of seven in a Durham coal-mine but had become a prosperous railway contractor in South Wales and elsewhere.

Political career

In 1885, Thomas Firbank's father Joseph became High Sheriff of Monmouthshire. Thomas Firbank became

High Sheriff of Monmouthshire This is a list of Sheriffs of Monmouthshire, an office which was created in 1536 but not fully settled until 1540. On 1 April 1974, under the provisions of the Local Government Act 1972, the shrievalty of Monmouthshire was abolished, and replac ...

in 1891. At the general election in July 1895, he was elected as the

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 ...

(MP) for

Kingston upon Hull East Kingston upon Hull East is a borough constituency for the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) at least once every five years by the first-past-the-post electoral system. The constitu ...

. He was re-elected in

1900 As of March 1 ( O.S. February 17), when the Julian calendar acknowledged a leap day and the Gregorian calendar did not, the Julian calendar fell one day further behind, bringing the difference to 13 days until February 28 ( O.S. February 15), 2 ...

but left the Commons before the 1906 general election. He was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...

in the

1902 Coronation Honours The 1902 Coronation Honours were announced on 26 June 1902, the date originally set for the coronation of King Edward VII. The coronation was postponed because the King had been taken ill two days before, but he ordered that the honours list shou ...

, receiving the accolade from 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 an ...

Buckingham Palace Buckingham Palace () is a London royal residence and the administrative headquarters of the monarch of the United Kingdom. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is often at the centre of state occasions and royal hospitality. It ...

on 24 October that year.

Personal life

Firbank lived in South Wales, at

St Julians, Newport St Julians ( cy, Sain Silian) is a community and coterminous electoral district (ward) of the City of Newport, South Wales. The community is bounded by the River Usk to the west and north, The Moorings, Badminton Road, Reynolds Close, Rembrandt ...

, but also in London at Clarges Street and from 1886 at the Coopers, Chislehurst. In 1883, Firbank married Jane Harriette Garrett (1851–1924). They had four children: Joseph Sydney (1884–1904), Arthur Annesley Ronald (1886–1926, who became celebrated as the novelist

Ronald Firbank Arthur Annesley Ronald Firbank (17 January 1886 – 21 May 1926) was an innovative English novelist. His eight short novels, partly inspired by the London aesthetes of the 1890s, especially Oscar Wilde, consist largely of dialogue, with referen ...

), Hubert Somerset (1887–1913, the father of the author Thomas Joseph Firbank, who wrote ''I Bought a Mountain, I Bought a Star'' and other books) and Heather (1888–1954). In ''Who's Who'' he described himself as "keen on all outdoor sports and athletics, music and objects of art."Cited in the Introduction to ''The Complete Ronald Firbank with an introduction by Anthony Powell'' (1961) He died of heart failure in

Tunbridge Wells Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in Kent, England, southeast of central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the Weald, High Weald, whose sandstone geology is exemplified by the rock formation High Roc ...

in 1910. His widow died in 1924.

References

External links

* 1850 births 1910 deaths Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Knights Bachelor Politicians awarded knighthoods UK MPs 1895–1900 UK MPs 1900–1906 High Sheriffs of Monmouthshire {{England-Conservative-UK-MP-1850s-stub