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 and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

politician who sat in 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 ...

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 (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament for Cheshire (UK Parliament cons ...

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 ...

) 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 Harrow School () is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English boarding school for boys) in Harrow on the Hill, Greater London, England. The school was founded in 1572 by John Lyon (school founder), John Lyon, a local landowner an ...

and

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church (, the temple or house, ''wikt:aedes, ædes'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by Henry V ...

. 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 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 ...

of the Cheadle Troop of the part-time

Staffordshire Yeomanry The Staffordshire Yeomanry (Queen's Own Royal Regiment) was a mounted auxiliary unit of the British Army raised in 1794 to defend Great Britain from foreign invasion. It continued in service after the Napoleonic Wars, frequently being called out ...

, being promoted to

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 ...

on 8 May 1861 and lieutenant-colonel 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 (MP) for

North Warwickshire North Warwickshire is a local government district with borough status in Warwickshire, England. The borough includes the two towns of Atherstone (where the council is based) and Coleshill, and the large villages of Hartshill, Kingsbury, Ma ...

. 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 Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...

while seeking to quell disturbances in

Lichfield Lichfield () is a city status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in Staffordshire, England. Lichfield is situated south-east of the county town of Stafford, north-east of Walsall, north-west of ...

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 refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900) and to the works they jointly created. The two men collaborated on fourteen com ...

's ''

Princess Ida ''Princess Ida; or, Castle Adamant'' is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It was their eighth operatic collaboration of fourteen; the next was ''The Mikado''. ''Princess Ida'' opened at the Savoy Thea ...

'' and blackening the face on the statue of

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

Family

Bromley-Davenport married Augusta Elizabeth Campbell, daughter of Walter Frederick Campbell of Islay in 1858. Their son

William William is a masculine given name of Germanic languages, Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman Conquest, Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle ...

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 from the Romsdalsfjorden through Rauma Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county and into Lesja Municipality in Innlandet county. It is the valley of the Rauma (river), Rau ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

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 or is the ninth-longest fjord in Norway. The long fjord is located in the Romsdal district of Møre og Romsdal county. It flows through the municipalities of Molde, Haram, Vestnes, and Rauma. The deepest point in the fjord is just southwest ...

in 1849. Bromley-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