St John Brodrick, 1st Earl of Midleton

William St John Fremantle Brodrick, 1st Earl of Midleton, KP (December 14, 1856–February 13, 1942), commonly known as St John Brodrick, was an English Conservative Party statesman.

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 Great Britain was created. The English family seat at Peper Harrow, near Godalming, Surrey, was designed by Sir William Chambers. William Brodrick, 8th Viscount Midleton 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 Honourable G. C. Brodrick, was for many years warden of Merton College, Oxford.

After being at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford, and serving as president of the Oxford Union, Brodrick entered Parliament as Conservative member for West Surrey in 1880. [LondonGazette|issue=24830|startpage=2388|date=6 April 1880|accessdate=2008-01-11] In 1883 he was appointed to a Royal Commission examining the condition of Irish prisons. [LondonGazette|issue=25184|startpage=29|endpage=30|date=2 January 1883|accessdate=2008-01-11] From 1886 to 1892 he was Financial Secretary to the War Office; Under-Secretary of State for War, 1895–1898; Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 1898–1900; Secretary of State for War, 1900–1903; [LondonGazette|issue=27246|startpage=6923|date=13 November 1900|accessdate=2008-01-11] [LondonGazette|issue=27272|supp=yes|startpage=552|date=24 January 1901|accessdate=2008-01-11] [LondonGazette|issue=27273|startpage=558|date=25 January 1901|accessdate=2008-01-11] and Secretary of State for India, 1903–1905. In 1885, he moved to the Guildford seat, [LondonGazette|issue=25609|startpage=3495|date=20 July 1886|accessdate=2008-01-11] [LondonGazette|issue=26311|startpage=4311|date=29 July 1892|accessdate=2008-01-11] [LondonGazette|issue=26651|startpage=4485|date=9 August 1895|accessdate=2008-01-11] [LondonGazette|issue=27244|startpage=6774|date=6 November 1900|accessdate=2008-01-11] but lost it at the general election of January 1906. In March 1907 he was made an alderman of the London County Council.

From c.1910 he was regarded as the nominal leader of the Irish Unionist alliance (the umbrella body for Southern Irish Unionists, corresponding to the Ulster Unionists' Ulster Unionist Council). He was a remote and condescending leader who relied on a few intimates and was suspected of being more interested in a future career in British conservative politics than in his Irish followers.

In 1916 Midleton's lobbying helped to defeat an attempt to implement immediate Home Rule with Ulster exclusion; this was supported by the Ulster leader Edward Carson and the Home Ruler John Redmond, but Midleton believed it would be disastrous for the Southern Unionist minority.

In 1918, during the Irish convention, Midleton tried to reach a compromise with Redmond which would allow Home Rule without partition subject to certain financial restrictions. This was rejected both by Redmond's followers (who saw it as too restrictive) and the hardline IUA rank-and-file, who deposed Midleton. He and his followers then formed the Irish Unionist Anti-Partition League, an elite body mainly concerned with lobbying. IT had some influence on the 1920 Government of Irealdn act, but none of the safeguards for Southern Unionist interests which it sought were included in the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty.

He married, first in 1880, Lady Hilda (died 1901), daughter of Francis Wemyss-Charteris, 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. In the 1920 New Year Honours, he was created the 1st Earl of Midleton, [LondonGazette|issue=31712|supp=yes|startpage=1|date=30 December 1919|accessdate=2008-01-10] a title that became extinct with the death of his son in 1979.

His sister, the Honourable Marian Cecilia Brodrick, married Sir James Whitehead, son of the inventor Robert Whitehead. Sir James Whitehead was to become the British Ambassador to Austria, and his daughter Agathe was the first wife of Georg Ritter von Trapp; the story of their children and his second wife, Maria von Trapp was the basis of the musical "The Sound of Music".

Footnotes

References

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* Obituary, "The Times", 16 February 1942
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