William Bromley-Davenport Vanity Fair 1877-05-12

William Bromley-Davenport (20 August 1821 – 15 June 1884), also known as Davenport and Davenport-Bromley, was an English

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 i ...

politician who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

from 1864 to 1884.

Biography

Bromley-Davenport was the son of Rev. Walter Davenport of Wootton Hall, Staffordshire (third son of

Davies Davenport Davies Davenport of Capesthorne Hall and Court Garden, Marlow (29 August 1757 — 5 February 1837) was a politician, soldier and landowner who served as Member of Parliament for Cheshire and High Sheriff of Cheshire. Early life Davenport was ...

Capesthorne Hall Capesthorne Hall is a country house near the village of Siddington, Cheshire, England. The house and its private chapel were built in the early 18th century, replacing an earlier hall and chapel nearby. They were built to Neoclassical d ...

) and his first wife, Caroline Barbara Gooch, daughter of Archdeacon Gooch. His father adopted the additional surname Bromley in 1822. As Davenport-Bromley, William was educated at Harrow School and

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church ( la, Ædes Christi, the temple or house, '' ædēs'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, the college is uniqu ...

. He was a Deputy Lieutenant and J.P. for Warwickshire and Staffordshire.Debretts House of Commons and the Judicial Bench 1881
accessed 18 April 2016. On 6 April 1843 he was commissioned as

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 ...

of the Cheadle Troop of the part-time Staffordshire Yeomanry, being promoted to

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 ...

on 8 May 1861 and

Lieutenant-Colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colo ...

on 13 July 1863. He became the regiment's commanding officer in July 1874. In 1864 Davenport-Bromley was elected at a by-election as 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 ...

(MP) for

North Warwickshire North Warwickshire is a local government district with borough status in the ceremonial county of Warwickshire, West Midlands, England. Outlying settlements in the borough include the two towns of Atherstone (where the council is based) and ...

. In 1868 he changed his name by Royal Licence to Bromley-Davenport. He held the seat of North Warwickshire until his death at the age of 62 in 1884. He collapsed and died of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...

while seeking to quell disturbances in

Lichfield Lichfield () is a cathedral city and civil parish in Staffordshire, England. Lichfield is situated roughly south-east of the county town of Stafford, south-east of Rugeley, north-east of Walsall, north-west of Tamworth and south-west o ...

caused by members of his Staffordshire Yeomanry. They were on a training week under his command but indulged in riotous behaviour, including storming the stage in a performance of

Gilbert and Sullivan Gilbert and Sullivan was a Victorian era, Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900), who jointly created fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which ...

's ''

Princess Ida ''Princess Ida; or, Castle Adamant'' is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It was their eighth operatic collaboration of fourteen. ''Princess Ida'' opened at the Savoy Theatre on 5 January 1884, for a ru ...

'' and blackening the face on the statue of

Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford ...

Family

Bromley-Davenport married Augusta Elizabeth Campbell, daughter of

Walter Frederick Campbell Walter Frederick Campbell of Shawfield (sometimes given "of Islay") (1798–1855), was a Scottish politician. He served as the MP for Argyllshire, 1822–1832 and 1835–1841. Early life and political career He was born on 10 April 1798, th ...

of Islay in 1858. Their son

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 ...

was a soldier and politician.

Hobbies

He was interested in fishing and bought his first summer house in

Romsdalen Romsdalen is a valley in the western part of Norway. The long valley runs through Rauma Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county and Lesja Municipality in Innlandet county. It is the valley of the Rauma river, from Old Norse word ''Raumsdalr'' ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

in 1862, to which he travelled every summer. On a fishing expedition with Lord William Beresford (died 1850) he had navigated the yacht "Coral Queen" to the

Romsdalsfjord Romsdalsfjord or Romsdal Fjord ( no, Romsdalsfjorden) is the ninth-longest fjord in Norway. It is long and located in the Romsdal district of Møre og Romsdal county. It flows through the municipalities of Molde, Ålesund, Vestnes, and Rauma. ...

in 1849. Lord Davenport also wrote a book "Sport" documenting his outdoors life, published by Chapman and Hall posthumously in 1885.William Bromley-Davenport
Sport
Chapman and Hall, 215 pages, 1885.

References

External links

* 1821 births 1884 deaths Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1880–1885 UK MPs 1859–1865 UK MPs 1865–1868 UK MPs 1868–1874 UK MPs 1874–1880 People educated at Harrow School Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford Deputy Lieutenants of Staffordshire Deputy Lieutenants of Warwickshire Staffordshire Yeomanry officers English justices of the peace {{England-Conservative-UK-MP-1820s-stub