Thomas Ashburnham, 6th Earl of Ashburnham (8 April 1855 – 12 May 1924) was a

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

officer and peer, the last

Earl of Ashburnham Earl of Ashburnham (pronounced "Ash-''burn''-am"), of Ashburnham in the County of Sussex, was a title in the Peerage of Great Britain created in 1730 for John Ashburnham, 3rd Baron Ashburnham, who was also created Viscount St Asaph, in Wales. ...

Early life

Thomas Ashburnham was the fifth of seven sons born to Bertram Ashburnham, 4th Earl of Ashburnham, by his wife, Lady Catherine Charlotte Baillie. His eldest brother, also named Bertram, succeeded to the title as 5th Earl in 1878. Ashburnham was educated at Adams Grammar School in

Newport, Shropshire Newport is a market town and Civil parishes in Shropshire, civil parish in the borough of Telford and Wrekin in Shropshire, England. It lies north-east of Telford, west of Stafford, and is near the Shropshire-Staffordshire border. The 2001 Ce ...

, before going up to

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 ...

Military career

Commissioned into the

7th Queen's Own Hussars The 7th Queen's Own Hussars was a cavalry regiment in the British Army, first formed in 1689. It saw service for three centuries, including the First World War and the Second World War. The regiment survived the immediate post-war reduction in ...

, Ashburnham was posted to South Africa as a Lieutenant in 1881. He later saw active service as in the British Expeditionary Force during the

Anglo-Egyptian War The British conquest of Egypt, also known as the Anglo-Egyptian War (), occurred in 1882 between Egyptian and Sudanese forces under Ahmed ‘Urabi and the United Kingdom. It ended a nationalist uprising against the Khedive Tewfik Pasha. It ...

of 1882 and was promoted to

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

. From 1885 to 1886 he served as aide-de-camp to the

Earl of Aberdeen Earl () is a rank of the nobility in the United Kingdom. In modern Britain, an earl is a member of the peerage, ranking below a marquess and above a viscount. A feminine form of ''earl'' never developed; instead, ''countess'' is used. The titl ...

while he was

Lord Lieutenant of Ireland Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (), or more formally Lieutenant General and General Governor of Ireland, was the title of the chief governor of Ireland from the Williamite Wars of 1690 until the Partition of Ireland in 1922. This spanned the K ...

. After that, he was stationed for several years in

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

. Ashburnham retired from the Army as a Captain in 1899.

Marriage and life in Fredericton

In 1901, aged 45, Thomas Ashburnham went out to Canada, where he stayed in a hotel in

Fredericton Fredericton (; ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of New Brunswick. The city is situated in the west-central portion of the province along the Saint John River (Bay of Fundy), Saint John River, ...

, New Brunswick. While there, he made several telephone calls from local taverns to a

livery stable A livery yard, livery stable or boarding stable, is a stable where horse owners pay a weekly or monthly fee to keep their horses. A livery or boarding yard is not usually a riding school and the horses are not normally for hire (unless on wor ...

for a horse and carriage to take him home at the end of the evening, and thus became acquainted with Maria Anderson, the night

switchboard operator In the early days of telephony, companies used manual telephone switchboards, and switchboard operators connected calls by inserting a pair of phone plugs into the appropriate jacks. They were gradually phased out and replaced by automated syste ...

at the New Brunswick Telephone Company. Infatuated by her pleasant voice and friendly manner, Ashburnham asked to meet her in person, and they got on so well that in early 1903 they were engaged to be married. Their marriage took place on 10 June 1903 at St. Anne's Parish Church, Fredericton. Captain Ashburnham bought two houses on Brunswick Street, Fredericton, one of which had been his wife's family home, and the other an inn, and had them connected by a second floor conservatory over a porte-cochere leading to a garden. The resulting residence was called Ashburnham House. The couple, who lived comfortably on a large allowance from the Ashburnham family, had no children.

Earl of Ashburnham

The 5th Earl of Ashburnham died in Paris on 15 January 1913, without a son and having outlived all his younger brothers except Thomas, who accordingly succeeded to the peerages of Earl of Ashburnham and Viscount St. Asaph, with a seat in the

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

, and to his family's settled estates. These included

Ashburnham Place Ashburnham Place is an English country house, now used as a Christian conference and prayer centre, five miles west of Battle, East Sussex, Battle, East Sussex. It was one of the finest houses in the southeast of England in its heyday, but much o ...

in Sussex and extensive estates in

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

. The new peer very soon left for England to settle his brother's affairs and take up his new responsibilities. He returned to Canada in the spring, leaving again with his wife, now Lady Ashburnham, on 15 May 1913. They took up residence at Ashburnham Place, but remained in England for only thirteen months before returning to Fredericton in June 1914. They took with them several English servants, as well as family furnishings and heirlooms, for their Fredericton residence. Lord and Lady Ashburnham continued to live at Ashburnham House in Fredericton for the next ten years, during which they were leaders of the town's social life and generous patrons of charitable causes. On 26 April 1924, Lord and Lady Ashburnham left Fredericton, taking passage on the

White Star Line The White Star Line was a British shipping line. Founded out of the remains of a defunct Packet trade, packet company, it gradually grew to become one of the most prominent shipping companies in the world, providing passenger and cargo service ...

r "SS Regina" to make a six-month visit to England. However, during the trans-Atlantic journey Ashburnham became ill with a cold and developed

bronchial pneumonia Bronchopneumonia is a subtype of pneumonia. It is the acute inflammation of the bronchi, accompanied by inflamed patches in the nearby lobules of the lungs. citing: Webster's New World College Dictionary, Fifth Edition, Copyright 2014 It is ofte ...

. He died on 12 May 1924 in London and was buried in the family vault at the parish church of Ashburnham. As he had no male heir, his peerages became extinct. In his will, Lady Ashburnham was left a life annuity of £2,300, and Ashburnham House in Fredericton. She lived until 9 October 1938. The Ashburnham properties in Great Britain, including Ashburnham Place, were inherited by the 5th Earl's daughter, Lady Catherine Ashburnham.www.burkespeerage.com
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ashburnham, Thomas Ashburnham, 6th Earl of Earls of Ashburnham 1855 births 1924 deaths People educated at Adams' Grammar School People from Ashburnham, East Sussex