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Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford, 1st Baron Redesdale, GCVO, KCB (24 February 1837 – 17 August 1916), of Batsford Park, Gloucestershire, and Birdhope Craig, Northumberland, was a British diplomat, collector and writer. Nicknamed "Barty", he was the paternal grandfather of the Mitford sisters.
Early years
Freeman-Mitford was the son of Henry Reveley Mitford (1804–1883) of Exbury House, Exbury, Hampshire and the great-grandson of the historian William Mitford, and was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford. While his paternal ancestors were landed gentry, whose holdings had once included Mitford Castle in Northumberland, his mother (Georgiana) Jemima was a daughter of the courtier the 3rd Earl of Ashburnham, with a noble ancestry through the earls of Beverley. His parents separated in 1840 when Redesdale was just three years old, and his mother remarried to a Mr. Molyneaux.
Like his cousin Swinburne, he was named Algernon after his grandfather Algernon Percy, 1st Earl of Beverley.
Career
Diplomacy
Entering the Foreign Office in 1858, Mitford was appointed Third Secretary of the British Embassy in St Petersburg. After service in the Diplomatic Corps in Peking, he went to Japan as second secretary to the British Legation at the time of the exciting but difficult Meiji Restoration. There he met Ernest Satow and wrote Tales of Old Japan (1871), a book credited with making such classical Japanese tales as "The Forty-seven Ronin" first known to a wide Western public. He resigned from the diplomatic service in 1873.
Following the 1902 Anglo-Japanese Alliance, in 1906 he accompanied Prince Arthur on a visit to Japan to present the Emperor Meiji with the Order of the Garter. He was asked by courtiers there about Japanese ceremonies that had disappeared since 1868. He is one of the people credited with introducing Japanese knotweed to England.
Public life
From 1874 to 1886 Mitford acted as secretary to HM Office of Works, involved in the lengthy restoration of the Tower of London and in landscaping parts of Hyde Park such as "The Dell". From 1887, he was a member of the Royal Commission on Civil Services. He also sat as Member of Parliament for Stratford-on-Avon between 1892 and 1895.
According to W. S. Gilbert, Mitford served as a consultant on Japanese culture to Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan during the development of their 1885 Savoy Opera The Mikado. A traditional Japanese song hummed by Mitford to Gilbert and Sullivan during a rehearsal was used in the opera for the march accompanying the Mikado's entrance.
In 1886, Mitford inherited the substantial country estates of his first cousin twice removed, John Freeman-Mitford, 1st Earl of Redesdale. In accordance with the will he assumed by Royal licence the additional surname of Freeman. Appointed a Deputy Lieutenant for Gloucestershire, he became a magistrate and took up farming and horse breeding. He was a member of the Royal Yacht Squadron from 1889 to 1914. Redesdale was President of the Royal Photographic Society between 1910–1912.
He substantially rebuilt Batsford House beside Batsford in Gloucestershire in the Victorian Gothic manorial style, but at such a cost that it had to be sold within a few years of his death. It was bought by Lord Dulverton and is still owned by his descendants.
Peerage
In 1902 the Redesdale title was revived when he was raised to the peerage as Baron Redesdale, of Redesdale in the County of Northumberland.
Pre- and extra-marital fatherhood
During his time in Japan he was said to have fathered two children with a geisha. Later he was considered to be one of the possible fathers of Clementine Hozier (1885–1977), in the course of an affair with his wife's sister Blanche. Clementine married Winston Churchill in 1908.
H S Chamberlain
In his closing years Lord Redesdale edited and wrote extensive and effusive introductions for two of Houston Stewart Chamberlain's books, Foundations of the Nineteenth Century and Immanuel Kant: A Study and Comparison with Goethe, Leonardo da Vinci, Bruno, Plato, and Descartes, both two volumes each, translated into English by John Lees, M.A., D.Litt., and published by John Lane at the Bodley Head, London, in 1910 and 1914 respectively.
Marriage
Lord Redesdale married in 1874 Lady Clementina Gertrude Helen (1854–1932), the daughter of David Ogilvy, 10th Earl of Airlie by his spouse Blanche, the daughter of Edward Stanley, 2nd Baron Stanley of Alderley. They had five sons and four daughters, of whom:
- Clement, the eldest son, killed in action in 1915 in the Battle of Loos, whose posthumous daughter Clementine married Sir Alfred Beit.
- David Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale, second but eldest surviving son, who was the father of the famous Mitford sisters.
- Frances Mitford, daughter, who later married Alexander Kearsey.
- Bertram, 3rd Lord and ancestor of the subsequent lords Redesdale
See also
- Hugh Cortazzi, Mitford's Japan : Memories and Recollections, 1866–1906, Format: Paperback, Published: January 2003, ISBN 1-903350-07-7
- Anglo-Japanese relations.
- Mitford family
Bibliography
- Tales of Old Japan (1871)
- The Bamboo Garden (1896)
- The Attaché at Peking (1900)
- The Garter Mission to Japan (1906)
- Memoirs (1915; 2 vols)
- Further Memories (Hutchinson & Co., London, 1917)
Lord Redesdale also wrote an extensive Introduction to Foundations of the Nineteenth Century, and translated, with another Introduction for Immanuel Kant, both by Houston Stewart Chamberlain.
The standard author abbreviation Mitford is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.Notes
- Gilbert, W. S. (2 May 1907). "The Mikado: Mr. Gilbert Explains a Famous Air". Morning Leader. p. 5. Retrieved 23 May 2013.
- Cortazzi H., "Mitford's Japan: memories and recollections, 1866–1906" p.xxiii
- http://www.rps.org/about/history/past-presidents Accessed 7 May 2013
- Joan Hardwick; Clementine Churchill: The Private Life of a Public Person John Murray, London (1997). ISBN 0-7195-5552-3
- International Plant Names Index. Mitford.
References
- Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990,
- Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages
- Lundy, Darryl. "FAQ". The Peerage.
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- Attribution
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty|title=(help)
External links
- Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Algernon Freeman-Mitford
- Works by Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford, 1st Baron Redesdale at Project Gutenberg
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded byFrederick Townsend | Member of Parliament for Stratford-on-Avon 1892–1895 |
Succeeded byVictor Milward |
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
| New creation | Baron Redesdale 1902–1916 |
Succeeded byDavid Freeman-Mitford |
- 1837 births
- 1916 deaths
- People educated at Eton College
- Barons in the Peerage of the United Kingdom
- British diplomats
- British expatriates in Japan
- Collectors of fairy tales
- Companions of the Order of the Bath
- Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies
- UK MPs 1892–95
- Mitford family