Cyril Flower, 1st Baron Battersea (30 August 1843 – 27 November 1907) was a British Liberal politician and patron of art.

Background and education

Flower was the third of 18 children (the second of 12 sons) of Philip William Flower, of Furze Down,

Streatham Streatham ( ) is a district in south London, England. Centred south of Charing Cross, it lies mostly within the London Borough of Lambeth, with some parts extending into the neighbouring London Borough of Wandsworth. Streatham was in Surrey ...

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

, 10 by his first wife and first cousin Mary (daughter of Jonathan Flower) who died in 1857, and 8 by his second wife Elizabeth Jephson. Cyril was born in 1843 at Tooting in the 18th-century Hill House and later lived in Streatham, both of which were rural environs at the time. He was educated at Harrow and

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...

, and was

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Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional association for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practice as a barrister in England and Wa ...

, in 1870. As well as exceptional good looks, it was said he possessed a genius for friendship, and an 'irresistible charm' that made everyone 'want to pet him'. His father and uncle had earlier established a successful merchant house in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

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. In 1838, the pair had sailed to Australia in order to establish themselves as merchants in Sydney. In 1842 the partnership of Flower, Salting & Co was formed, shipping wool, tallow and gold to London. In 1842/3, Philip returned there, leaving his brother to oversee operations in Sydney. He then established the firm of P.W. Flower and Co., and his property included Collier's Quay and other London wharves. From 1867, and with other partners, Philip began developing part of the newly laid out Victoria Street in Westminster. St. Philips Square was named by Philip Flower as was St. Philip's Church in its centre, which was consecrated in July 1870.

Property development

Like his father, Flower also became involved in property development, and assisted his brother Arthur with the development of

Battersea Battersea is a large district in southwest London, part of the London Borough of Wandsworth, England. It is centred southwest of Charing Cross and also extends along the south bank of the Thames Tideway. It includes the Battersea Park. Hist ...

's Park Town after the death of his father in 1872. James Knowles, Junior, was engaged as architect and surveyor for the Park Town development, a lozenge-shaped estate running either side of Queens Road (now Queenstown Road) which extended from Battersea Park Road to Wandsworth Road. He also developed the mansion blocks lining the south side of Prince of Wales Drive. In 1888 Flower and his wife acquired two cottages at Overstrand for the purposes of creating a holiday home. In 1897 their architect,

Edwin Lutyens Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens ( ; 29 March 1869 – 1 January 1944) was an English architect known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era. He designed many English country houses, war memorials ...

, rebuilt and joined them to form a large mansion in extensive gardens, ''The Pleasaunce''.

Political career

Aided by his wife's fortune, in 1880 Flower entered Parliament for

Brecon Brecon (; ; ), archaically known as Brecknock, is a market town in Powys, mid Wales. In 1841, it had a population of 5,701. The population in 2001 was 7,901, increasing to 8,250 at the 2011 census. Historically it was the county town of Breck ...

, a seat he held until 1885 when the constituency was abolished, and then represented

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until 1892. He served briefly as a Junior Lord of the Treasury from February to July 1886 in the third Liberal administration of

William Ewart Gladstone William Ewart Gladstone ( ; 29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British politican, starting as Conservative MP for Newark and later becoming the leader of the Liberal Party (UK), Liberal Party. In a career lasting over 60 years, he ...

. He was widely referred to as "the most handsome man in the House of Commons", and was a great favourite of Gladstone''People in the Public Eye'', Weekly Mail, 21 May 1904; http://newspapers.library.wales/view/3376851/3376855/96/ who, in 1892, raised him to the peerage as Baron Battersea of Battersea in the County of London and of Overstrand in the County of Norfolk. He took the motto ''Flores curat Deus'' ("God cares for the flowers"). In 1893 Battersea was offered the governorship of

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

. However he sacrificially turned it down due to the separation it would have imposed on Lady Battersea from her mother, who also enjoyed his company. He was president of the National Education Association as late as 1902, when the association was heavily involved in debating the Education Bill.

Patron of the arts

Apart from his property development and political career he was also a great collector and patron of art. He was a patron of

James McNeill Whistler James Abbott McNeill Whistler (; July 10, 1834July 17, 1903) was an American painter in oils and watercolor, and printmaker, active during the American Gilded Age and based primarily in the United Kingdom. He eschewed sentimentality and moral a ...

and was involved with the

Pre-Raphaelite The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB), later known as the Pre-Raphaelites, was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, ...

set. His bedroom in his London residence was one of the few interiors completed by Carlo Bugatti.]

Personal life

In 1877 Battersea married Constance Flower, Constance, daughter of Sir Anthony de Rothschild, whom he met in 1864 through his friendship with her cousin, Leopold de Rothschild.Battersea, Constance de Rothschild Flower ''Reminiscences'', Macmillan and Co, 1922; https://archive.org/details/reminiscences00battgoog The marriage was childless. Battersea favoured men: a close friend and possible lover was the psychical researcher Frederic W. H. Myers. Other friends included

Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...

and Sir Edward Burne-Jones. There are indications that Lady Battersea disapproved of some of his friends, and in her memoirs she cautiously comments that she had intuitively felt that "some of the very ardent and sudden likings he occasionally took to certain persons might lead to misplaced friendship". Battersea maintained a broad range of other interests, as a politician, art collector, sportsman, and photographer, and had a love for decoration and had a love for bright colour, both in his houses and on his person. At Overstrand he was described as appearing "a gorgeous vision of pale blue, sea-green, or rose-coloured silk". Wrote another: "He is a handsome man, but at times affects costumes which would make him more at home in the pages of Ouida than in scenes of ordinary life." In 1902, Battersea was involved in a homosexual scandal. Although ringleader in the case, in which two procurers were imprisoned, he was secretly granted immunity from prosecution by the Government of

Arthur Balfour Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour (; 25 July 184819 March 1930) was a British statesman and Conservative Party (UK), Conservative politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1902 to 1905. As Foreign Secretary ...

. Lord and Lady Battersea were noted for their philanthropy towards the working class, and following her husband's enforced retirement, Lady Battersea devoted most of her time and vast wealth to improving the living conditions of female prisoners; her work was recognised by her appointment by the Government to a prison board.''Letter of the Marquise de Fontenoy'' (pseud. Marguerite Cunliffe-Owen), Chicago Tribune 4 Dec. 1907;http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1907/12/04/page/8/article/marquise-de-fontenoy Battersea died from

pneumonia Pneumonia is an Inflammation, inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as Pulmonary alveolus, alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of Cough#Classification, productive or dry cough, ches ...

in November 1907, aged 64, when the barony became extinct. Lady Battersea's memoirs make plain her admiration for her husband, her enjoyment of his career, and their mutual interests, but also her frustrations. Lady Battersea died in November 1931.

Notes

References

* * *Stibbons, Peter and Cleveland, David Cleveland (2nd ed, 1985). ''Strands of Norfolk History'', Poppyland Publishing. *Metcalf, Priscilla (1978). "The Park Town Estate and the Battersea Tangle", ''London Topographical Society Publication'', (No 121).

External links

Portrait of Lord Battersea
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Battersea, Cyril Flower, 1st Baron 1843 births 1907 deaths People educated at Harrow School Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Liberal Party (UK) MPs for Welsh constituencies Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies LGBTQ members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom LGBTQ peers UK MPs 1880–1885 UK MPs 1885–1886 UK MPs 1886–1892 UK MPs who were granted peerages Barons in the Peerage of the United Kingdom Peers of the United Kingdom created by Queen Victoria