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St John Brodrick, 1st Earl of Midleton
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St John Brodrick, 1st Earl of Midleton
William St John Fremantle Brodrick, 1st Earl of Midleton, KP, PC, DL (14 December 1856 – 13 February 1942), styled as St John Brodrick until 1907 and as Viscount Midleton between 1907 and 1920, was a British Conservative and Irish Unionist Alliance politician. He served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1880 to 1906, as a government minister from 1886 to 1892 and from 1895 to 1900, and as a Cabinet minister from 1900 to 1905.
Brodrick came of a mainly south-west Surrey family who in the early 17th century, in Sirs St John and Thomas Brodrick, were granted land in the south of Ireland, mainly in County Cork. The former 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 Harow, near Godalming, Surrey, was designed by Sir William Chambers. His father The 8th Viscount Midleton was a conservative in politics, holding seats West Surrey and Guildford in the House of Commons (November 1885 – January 1906), and who was responsible in the House of Lords for carrying the Infant Life Protection Act 1872, which helped regulate the practice of baby farming. William was educated at Windlesham, Eton and Balliol College, Oxford,[citation needed] where he served as president of the Oxford Union. He was awarded a Doctorate of Laws (LLD) by Trinity College, Dublin. He owned, in submissions from his landowning heyday, about 5,000 acres (20 km2).[citation needed]
He maintained three homes: Peper Harow (House); 34 Portland Place, London (telephone number on the Langham exchange); Midleton (House), Ireland.[citation needed] His family-settled land was probated before his widow's death in 1943 at £68,290 (equivalent to about £2,690,000 in 2025) and £55,624 in other assets in 1942.
Brodrick entered Parliament as Conservative member for West Surrey in 1880. In 1883 he was appointed to a Royal Commission examining the condition of Irish prisons. He was Financial Secretary to the War Office 1886–92; Under-Secretary of State for War, 1895–1898; Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 1898–1900; Secretary of State for War, 1900–1903; and Secretary of State for India, 1903–05.
He was Secretary of State for War during most of the Second Boer War (1899–1902). He thus had the responsibility of defending the British use of concentration camps in parliament. The conflict itself showed that the British army was not prepared for the guerrilla war of the Boers. He therefore initiated (though successors played a bigger part) a period of reform of the British army, which was focused on lessening the emphasis placed on mounted units in combat. In September 1902, Brodrick and Lord Roberts, the Commander-in-Chief of the army, visited Germany as guests to attend the German army maneuvers. In January 1903 he visited Malta and Gibraltar and inspected the garrisons there.
In 1904, during a crisis in British relations with Russia, he became the first member of a Cabinet since 1714 to attend a meeting of the Privy Council without being summoned to it by the monarch. At the general election of January 1906, which resulted in a Liberal win (the biggest landside except for that of the 1931 National Government's Conservatives), he lost his Parliamentary seat, at Guildford, which he had held since 1885. From March 1907 to 1913 he was an alderman of London County Council.
From 1910 he was regarded as the nominal leader of the Irish Unionist Alliance (IUA) in Southern Ireland, while Sir Edward Carson led the party in Ulster (the Ulster Unionist Council). Many Irish followers and sympathisers saw him as remote or condescending, reliant on a few intimates and suspected he was more interested in promotion in British politics. 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, and called attention to the need to protect them from discriminatory taxation.
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St John Brodrick, 1st Earl of Midleton
William St John Fremantle Brodrick, 1st Earl of Midleton, KP, PC, DL (14 December 1856 – 13 February 1942), styled as St John Brodrick until 1907 and as Viscount Midleton between 1907 and 1920, was a British Conservative and Irish Unionist Alliance politician. He served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1880 to 1906, as a government minister from 1886 to 1892 and from 1895 to 1900, and as a Cabinet minister from 1900 to 1905.
Brodrick came of a mainly south-west Surrey family who in the early 17th century, in Sirs St John and Thomas Brodrick, were granted land in the south of Ireland, mainly in County Cork. The former 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 Harow, near Godalming, Surrey, was designed by Sir William Chambers. His father The 8th Viscount Midleton was a conservative in politics, holding seats West Surrey and Guildford in the House of Commons (November 1885 – January 1906), and who was responsible in the House of Lords for carrying the Infant Life Protection Act 1872, which helped regulate the practice of baby farming. William was educated at Windlesham, Eton and Balliol College, Oxford,[citation needed] where he served as president of the Oxford Union. He was awarded a Doctorate of Laws (LLD) by Trinity College, Dublin. He owned, in submissions from his landowning heyday, about 5,000 acres (20 km2).[citation needed]
He maintained three homes: Peper Harow (House); 34 Portland Place, London (telephone number on the Langham exchange); Midleton (House), Ireland.[citation needed] His family-settled land was probated before his widow's death in 1943 at £68,290 (equivalent to about £2,690,000 in 2025) and £55,624 in other assets in 1942.
Brodrick entered Parliament as Conservative member for West Surrey in 1880. In 1883 he was appointed to a Royal Commission examining the condition of Irish prisons. He was Financial Secretary to the War Office 1886–92; Under-Secretary of State for War, 1895–1898; Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 1898–1900; Secretary of State for War, 1900–1903; and Secretary of State for India, 1903–05.
He was Secretary of State for War during most of the Second Boer War (1899–1902). He thus had the responsibility of defending the British use of concentration camps in parliament. The conflict itself showed that the British army was not prepared for the guerrilla war of the Boers. He therefore initiated (though successors played a bigger part) a period of reform of the British army, which was focused on lessening the emphasis placed on mounted units in combat. In September 1902, Brodrick and Lord Roberts, the Commander-in-Chief of the army, visited Germany as guests to attend the German army maneuvers. In January 1903 he visited Malta and Gibraltar and inspected the garrisons there.
In 1904, during a crisis in British relations with Russia, he became the first member of a Cabinet since 1714 to attend a meeting of the Privy Council without being summoned to it by the monarch. At the general election of January 1906, which resulted in a Liberal win (the biggest landside except for that of the 1931 National Government's Conservatives), he lost his Parliamentary seat, at Guildford, which he had held since 1885. From March 1907 to 1913 he was an alderman of London County Council.
From 1910 he was regarded as the nominal leader of the Irish Unionist Alliance (IUA) in Southern Ireland, while Sir Edward Carson led the party in Ulster (the Ulster Unionist Council). Many Irish followers and sympathisers saw him as remote or condescending, reliant on a few intimates and suspected he was more interested in promotion in British politics. 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, and called attention to the need to protect them from discriminatory taxation.
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