british war memorials · lord midleton

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use the down arrow to view option ========================= ---------- section a ---------- argentine graves [Rem] asquith, lieutenant raymond [BWM] ========================= ---------- section b ---------- baltic exchange [BWM] battle britain memorial flight [BWM] bayes, gilbert [BWM] bean, charles [BWM] blighty, a soldier's dream of [BWM] british medical association [BWM] ========================= ---------- section c ---------- canada and liverpool [BWM] cenotaph, new zealand [BWM] chopsticks memorial [BWM] cochrane, admiral lord thomas [Rem] collingwood, vice admiral lord [BWM] ========================= ---------- section f ---------- fishguard [BWM] ========================= ---------- section g ---------- glasgow university memorial chapel [BWM] grenfell, captain the honourable julian [Rem] ========================= ---------- section h ---------- halifax bomber lw 340 [Rem] havelock, major general sir henry [BWM] helles memorial [BWM] home guard memorial (torbay) [BWM] hollis vc, stanley [BWM] horner, lieutenant edward [BWM] ========================= ---------- section k ---------- king’s own royal regiment memorial chapel [BWM] king's royal rifle corps [BWM] ========================= ---------- section l ---------- lincoln cathedral [BWM] ========================= ---------- section m ---------- malta [BWM] madingly [Rem] montford, paul [BWM] mckenzie, dr r tait [BWM] midleton, lord [BWM] music of remembrance [Rem] ========================= ---------- section n ---------- nelson's island [Rem] newgass, lieutenant harold [BWM] ========================= ---------- section p ---------- polish war memorial [BWM] ========================= ---------- section r ---------- rugby school memorial chapel [BWM] ========================= ---------- section s ---------- sandhurst, royal memorial chapel [BWM] sicily [Rem] st brides church [BWM] stirling bomber n 3654 [Rem] strange burial, a [Rem] ========================= ---------- section t ---------- turing, alan [BWM] ========================= ---------- section w ---------- wakeful, HMS [Rem] wakenshaw vc, private adam [BWM] williams, lieutenant colonel henry [Rem] women at war memorial [BWM]

The titles of Baron Midleton and Viscount Midleton in the Peerage of Ireland were created in 1715 and 1717 respectively for Alan Brodrick, Lord Chancellor of Ireland.

“In a rancorous debate, the two traded thinly-veiled insults. Churchill's eloquence and mastery of his subject established his enduring parliamentary reputation”

In 1796 his successor, the 4th Viscount, was created Baron Brodrick in the Peerage of Great Britain and the titles remain extant.

The Midleton family obtained grants of land in Ireland in the 17th century and the town of Midleton may be found in County Cork.

William St John Fremantle Brodrick was born on 14 December 1856. He was the son and heir of the 8th Viscount Midleton and the family seat was at Peper Harow, Godalming, Surrey. He was educated at Eton, Balliol College, Oxford and was President of the Oxford Union. He married Lady Hilda Charteris, daughter of the 9th Earl of Wemyss in 1880 and they had five children.

That same year, he was elected Conservative MP for one of the Surrey divisions in 1880 and embarked upon a distinguished career in the House of Commons. From 1886 to 1892 he was Financial Secretary to the War Office and in 1895-98 was Under Secretary for War. In 1897 he was sworn of the Privy Council. In the period 1898-1900 he served as Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs. In 1900 he succeeded Lansdowne as Secretary of State for War and dealt with both Kitchener and the aftermath of the war in South Africa.

In 1901 he instantly recognised Churchill's ability and praised his maiden speech in the House. Unfortunately, on 23 April Churchill attacked his scheme for Army Reform, even going so far as to table an Amendment to the Bill in the House. In a rancorous debate, the two traded thinly-veiled insults. Churchill's eloquence and mastery of his subject established his enduring parliamentary reputation. He would subsequently emerge as a leading figure of the 'Hughligans' - a group of dissident Tories named after Lord Hugh Cecil.

Broderick was wounded by Churchill's repeated attacks over Army Reform and in 1903 he was shifted to the post of Secretary of State for India, a post he held until 1905.

In 1901 Broderick's wife died and in 1903 he married Madeleine Stanley, daughter of Lady St Helier. He lost his seat for the Guildford Division of Surrey in the General Election of January 1906. In March 1907 he was made an Alderman of London County Council. In April that year, upon the death of his father, he succeeded to the title of 9th Viscount Midleton. In 1916 he was appointed Knight of the Order of St Patrick and in June he was one of five Unionists peers who denounced David Lloyd George's proposals for a settlement in Ireland. Towards the end of 1919 Churchill persuaded the War Cabinet to pay for general war memorials to be erected on the battlefields of the Great War and given Midleton's experience and background, he was a natural choice to Chair the National Battlefield Memorials Committee.

In 1920 he was created 1st Earl of Midleton and Viscount Dunsford. In Ireland, he worked hard to preserve the vested interests of the Protestant Ascendancy, was a bitter opponent of Irish Home Rule, and as spokesman for the Southern Unionists fought it all the way, but he suspected at the outset that the British political establishment intended to allow the Irish to govern their own affairs and abandon the Southern Unionists to the tender mercies of Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins, which is precisely what transpired.

In his memoirs Ireland: Dupe or Heroine? (1930) Midleton described his anger at Queen Victoria's obstinacy in refusing to accede to repeated pressure from successive prime ministers, lords lieutenant and members of the Royal Family to establish a royal residence in Ireland. He considered her intransigence as having proved disastrous to both the monarchy and British rule there.

Lord Midleton died on 13 February 1942 and his son George St John Brodrick succeeded to the title as 2nd Earl and that title died out with him on his death in 1979. Both of Lord Midleton's sons from his second marriage, Major the Honourable Michael Victor Broderick and Major the Honourable Francis Alan Brodrick were killed in action on successive days in Italy in September 1943. Lord Midleton's papers, including those relating to Irish affairs during the time of 'The Troubles', which illustrate his role as leader of the Southern Irish Loyalists were deposited in January 1967 at the PRO at Kew by his daughter Lady Moyra Lloyd.