Fiennes Cornwallis, 1st Baron Cornwallis

Colonel The Right Honourable
The Lord Cornwallis
Fiennes Cornwallis c. 1898
Born
Fiennes Stanley Wykeham Cornwallis

(1864-05-27)27 May 1864
Chacombe Priory, Banbury, Oxfordshire, England
Died26 September 1935(1935-09-26) (aged 71)
Linton, Kent, England
EducationEton College
OccupationPolitician
Title1st Baron Cornwallis
Successor2nd Baron Cornwallis
Political partyConservative
Spouse(s)Mabel Leigh, Lady Cornwallis
Children7

Colonel Fiennes Stanley Wykeham Cornwallis, 1st Baron Cornwallis, CBE, TD, JP, DL (27 May 1864 – 26 September 1935) was a British Conservative politician.

Early life

Cornwallis was born 27 May 1864 at Chacombe Priory, Banbury, Oxfordshire, the eldest son of Fiennes Cornwallis, previously known as Fiennes Wykeham Martin, who had changed his name to Cornwallis after an inheritance, and his wife Harriet Elizabeth Mott. He was a grandson of Charles Wykeham Martin (born Charles Wykeham) and a great-grandson of James Mann, 5th Earl Cornwallis.

He had one brother and two sisters[1] and was educated at Eton College.[2]

Political career

Cornwallis was elected to the House of Commons as Member of Parliament for Maidstone in 1888, a seat he held until 1895; he was elected again from 1898 until September 1900,[2] when he was narrowly defeated by a Liberal, John Barker.

Cornwallis was vice-chairman of Kent County Council between February 1900 and May 1910, and then chairman until 1930.[3][2]

In 1927 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Cornwallis,[4] of Linton in the County of Kent, where his country house, Linton Park, was situated.

He was appointed Honorary Colonel of the Thames and Medway Heavy Brigade, Royal Artillery, on 11 March 1933.[5]

Private life

Lord Cornwallis married Mabel Leigh, a daughter of Oswald Peter Leigh, in 1886. They had seven children, three sons and four daughters. His children were:-

  • Lt. Fiennes Wykeham Mann Cornwallis, 1890–1921, who was killed in Ireland in May 1921 during the Irish War of Independence
  • Wykeham Stanley Cornwallis, 1892–1982, who succeeded his father as the second Baron
  • Captain Oswald Wykeham Cornwallis, R.N., 1894–1974
  • Lady Julia Dorothy Cochrane , 1887–1971
  • Lady Vere Mabel Steel (née Cornwallis), 1889–1964
  • Hon. Yvonne Cecil 1896–1983
  • Hon. Bridget Frances Kate Petherick born 1900

Lady Cornwallis died in 1957.

Cornwallis was a senior Freemason, serving as Provincial Grand Master of Kent and as Grand Warden in the United Grand Lodge of England. Stanley Wykeham Lodge was named after him.[6]

Notes

  1. ^ His siblings were:
    • Arthur Wykeham Cornwallis 1865–1952.
    • Helen Florence Cornwallis 1867–1957.
    • Caroline Vere Cornwallis 1868–1909.
  2. ^ a b c "Cornwallis, 1st Baron cr 1927, of Linton, Kent, in County of Kent (Fiennes Stanley Wykeham Cornwallis)", in Who's Who, online edition by Oxford University Press, 1 December 2007, accessed 22 November 2025 (subscription required)
  3. ^ "KENT COUNTY COUNCIL", Dover Express, Friday 23 February 1900, p. 5
  4. ^ Second creation of Baron Cornwallis in 1927, first being in 1661
  5. ^ Army List.
  6. ^ Stanley Wykeham Lodge 6599 Archived 23 January 2008 at the Wayback Machine

References

  • Kidd, Charles; Williamson, David (editors). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (1990 edition) New York: St Martin's Press, 1990. ISBN 0-333-38847-X
  • Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs
  • The Descendants of William the Conqueror Page 104
  • The Conwallis Family, Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science
  • "History of our Province", East Kent Freemasons
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