Brigadier-General Sir Richard Beale Colvin, (4 August 1856 – 17 January 1936) was a British officer and Conservative Party politician.

Biography

Colvin was the elder son of Beale Blackwell Colvin, of

Pishiobury Pishiobury, sometimes spelled Pishobury, was a manor and estate in medieval Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire. Its denomination as "Pishiobury" only emerged in the mid to late 19th century. History This sub-manor of Pishiobury originated in a gran ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...

. He was educated at

Eton Eton most commonly refers to Eton College, a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. Eton may also refer to: Places *Eton, Berkshire, a town in Berkshire, England *Eton, Georgia, a town in the United States *Éton, a commune in the Meuse depa ...

and at

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 ...

, from where he received a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

(BA) in 1879. He served as

High Sheriff of Essex The High Sheriff of Essex was an ancient sheriff title originating in the time of the Angles, not long after the invasion of the Kingdom of England, which was in existence for around a thousand years. On 1 April 1974, under the provisions of th ...

in 1890, and was a

Major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...

in the

Loyal Suffolk Hussars The Duke of York's Own Loyal Suffolk Hussars was a Yeomanry regiment of the British Army. Originally formed as a volunteer cavalry force in 1793, it fought in the Second Boer War as part of the Imperial Yeomanry. In World War I the regiment fough ...

, a

Yeomanry Yeomanry is a designation used by a number of units and sub-units in the British Army Reserve which are descended from volunteer cavalry regiments that now serve in a variety of different roles. History Origins In the 1790s, following the ...

regiment based in

Bury St Edmunds Bury St Edmunds (), commonly referred to locally as ''Bury,'' is a cathedral as well as market town and civil parish in the West Suffolk District, West Suffolk district, in the county of Suffolk, England.OS Explorer map 211: Bury St. Edmunds an ...

.. Following the outbreak of the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War (, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, Transvaal War, Anglo–Boer War, or South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer republics (the South African Republic and ...

in late 1899, Colvin was on 7 February 1900 appointed Deputy-Assistant Adjutant-General in the

Imperial Yeomanry The Imperial Yeomanry was a volunteer mounted force of the British Army that mainly saw action during the Second Boer War. Created on 2 January 1900, the force was initially recruited from the middle classes and traditional yeomanry sources, but s ...

, responsible for corps raised outside the headquarters of the existing yeomanry regiments. With the expansion of the number of Imperial Yeomanry regiments, he was a month later, on 14 March 1900, reassigned and appointed in command of the 20th Battalion, Imperial Yeomanry, which set out for

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

later that month. He was promoted to lieutenant-colonel on 8 November 1901, and transferred to the

Essex Yeomanry The Essex Yeomanry was a Reserve unit of the British Army that originated in 1797 as local Yeomanry Cavalry Troops in Essex. Reformed after the experience gained in the Second Boer War, it saw active service as cavalry in World War I and as a ...

. For his services during the war, he was appointed a Companion (military) of the

Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by King George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. Recipients of the Order are usually senior British Armed Forces, military officers or senior Civil Service ...

(CB) in November 1900. After the end of the war, he received the honorary rank of

colonel Colonel ( ; abbreviated as Col., Col, or COL) is a senior military Officer (armed forces), officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, a colon ...

. He was later awarded the Companion (civil) of the Order of the Bath (CB) in 1911, and was promoted to a Knight Commander of the Order (KCB). Colvin was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Epping at an unopposed by-election in 1917, after Epping's Conservative MP

Amelius Lockwood Lieutenant colonel (United Kingdom), Lieutenant-Colonel Amelius Richard Mark Lockwood, 1st Baron Lambourne, (17 August 1847 – 26 December 1928) was a British soldier and politician. Background and education Born Amelius Wood, Lockwood was ...

was ennobled as

Baron Lambourne Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or knight, ...

. He was re-elected in

1918 The ceasefire that effectively ended the World War I, First World War took place on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of this year. Also in this year, the Spanish flu pandemic killed 50–100 million people wor ...

and

1922 Events January * January 7 – Dáil Éireann (Irish Republic), Dáil Éireann, the parliament of the Irish Republic, ratifies the Anglo-Irish Treaty by 64–57 votes. * January 10 – Arthur Griffith is elected President of Dáil Éirean ...

, and retired from the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, 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 ...

at the 1923 general election. On 31 January 1929, he was appointed

Lord-Lieutenant of Essex This is a list of people who have served as Lord Lieutenant of Essex. Since 1688, all the Lord Lieutenants have also been Custos Rotulorum of Essex. *John Petre, 1st Baron Petre *John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford 1558–? *Robert Dudley, 1st Earl ...

, serving as such until 1936.

Family

Covin married, on 26 June 1895, Lady Gwendoline Audrey Adeline Brudenell Rous (1869–1952), daughter of

John Rous, 2nd Earl of Stradbroke John Edward Cornwallis Rous, 2nd Earl of Stradbroke (13 February 1794 – 27 January 1886) was a British soldier and nobleman. Biography He was the eldest son of the 6th Baronet and 1st Earl of Stradbroke. He joined the Army at the age of ...

and Augusta Bonham. They had two children: * Aubrey Mary Maud Colvin (b. 1896) * Richard Beale Rous (b. 15 March 1900) They lived at

Monkhams Monkhams is an area in Woodford in the London Borough of Redbridge. The Monkhams Estate is an affluent area consisting mainly of large, detached homes. History Monkhams was originally a country estate in northern Woodford in what was then rural ...

Waltham Abbey Waltham Abbey is a suburban town and civil parish in the Epping Forest District of Essex, within the London metropolitan area, metropolitan and urban area of London, England, East London, north-east of Charing Cross. It lies on the Greenwich ...

. His portrait, describing him as a brigadier general, is held at the

National Portrait Gallery National Portrait Gallery may refer to: * National Portrait Gallery (Australia), in Canberra * National Portrait Gallery (Sweden), in Mariefred *National Portrait Gallery (United States), in Washington, D.C. *National Portrait Gallery, London ...

References

External links

* * 1856 births 1936 deaths Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1910–1918 UK MPs 1918–1922 UK MPs 1922–1923 Lord-lieutenants of Essex High sheriffs of Essex British Army brigadiers Imperial Yeomanry officers Suffolk Yeomanry officers Essex Yeomanry officers Volunteer Force officers Military personnel from Hertfordshire British Army personnel of the Second Boer War People educated at Eton College {{England-Conservative-UK-MP-1850s-stub