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William St John Fremantle Brodrick Midleton

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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WILLIAM ST JOHN FREMANTLE BRODRICK, MIDLETON 9TH Viscount (1856-), English politician, was the son of the 8th viscount (1830-1907). He came of a Surrey family who in the 17th century, in the persons of Sir St John Brodrick and Sir Thomas Brodrick, obtained grants of land in the south of Ireland. Sir St John Brodrick settled at Midleton, between Cork and Youghal in 1641; and his son Alan Brodrick (1660-1728), speaker of the Irish House of Commons and lord chancellor of Ireland, was created Baron Brodrick in 1715 and Viscount Midleton in 1717 in the Irish peerage. In 1796 the title of Baron Brodrick in the peerage of the United Kingdom was created. The English family seat at Peper Harow, near Godalming, Surrey, was designed by Sir William Chambers. The 8th viscount was a Conservative in politics, who for a few years had a seat in the House of Commons, and who was responsible in the House of Lords for carrying the Infants Protection Act. His brother, the Hon. G. C. Brodrick, was for many years warden of Merton College, Oxford. As Mr St John Brodrick, the 9th viscount had a distinguished career in the House of Commons. After being at Eton and Balliol, Oxford, and serving as president of the Oxford Union, he entered parliament as conservative member for one of the Surrey divisions in 1880. From 1886 to 1892 he was financial secretary to the war office; under secretary for war, 1895-1898; under secretary for foreign affairs, 1898-1900; secretary of state for war, 1900-1903; and secretary of state for India, 1903-1905. He lost his seat for the Guildford division of Surrey at the general election of January 1906. In March 1907 he was made an alderman of the London County Council. He married, first in 1880, Lady Hilda (d. 1901), daughter of the 9th earl of Wemyss, by whom he had a family; and secondly in 1903, Madeleine Stanley, daughter of Lady St Helier by her first husband.