TALBOT, Hon. Walter Cecil Chetwynd (1834-1904), of 36 Belgrave Square, London; Ingestre Hall, Staffs. and Kiplin Hall, Northallerton, Yorks.

Walter Cecil Talbot’s grandfather, Charles Chetwynd, 2^nd earl Talbot of Hensol (1777-1849), was lord lieutenant of Ireland in 1817-21 and a steady opponent of Catholic emancipation.1E.I. Carlyle, rev. H.C.G. Matthew, ‘Talbot, Charles Chetwynd’, Oxford DNB, vol. 53, 682-3. His great-grandfather, John Chetwynd Talbot (1749-93), was MP for Castle Rising in 1777-82. The family of John Talbot’s wife had represented Stafford since 1689: H.M. Stephens, rev. P. Carter, ‘Chetwynd, William Richard’, Oxford DNB, vol. 11, 364; HP Commons, 1754-1790, ii, 211; Ibid., iii, 516. His father, Henry Chetwynd Talbot, visct. Ingestre, was MP for Hertford, 1830-1, 1832-3, Armagh, 1831, Dublin, 1831-2, and South Staffordshire, 1837-49. A ‘violent Tory’, of whom Lord Stanley remarked ‘Personally he was disliked, his manners being rough and even repulsive’, Ingestre served in the Royal Navy and became an admiral in 1865.2HP Commons, 1820-32: Henry Chetwynd-Talbot (1803-68); John Vincent (ed.), Disraeli, Derby and the Conservative Party: journals and memoirs of Edward Henry, Lord Stanley, 1849-1869 (1978), 334. Like his father, Talbot became a noted sailor. Entering the service in December 1847, he served in the Baltic and Crimean Wars, participating in the forcing of the straits of Yenikale and the bombardment and capture of Kinburn in 1855, and was subsequently flag-lieutenant on HMS Nile, the flagship of his kinsman, Rear-Admiral Sir Charles Talbot (1801-76).3Talbot also played one match of first class cricket for the MCC in 1851, scoring nine runs, not out. [www.cricinfo.com]

Though from a long-established Staffordshire family, Talbot was a nephew of the 4^th marquess of Waterford, and, in what became known as the ‘Great Shrewsbury Case’ of 1857-8, his father had established his claim to the earldom of Shrewsbury, which co-incidentially brought with it the ancient titles earl of Waterford and hereditary high steward of Ireland.4Daily News, 3 Mar. 1859; Derby Mercury, 18 Apr. 1860. Talbot was therefore considered a suitable candidate to stand in his uncle’s (Conservative) interest for County Waterford at the 1859 general election, when, contrary to his own expectations, he was elected unopposed after one of the sitting Liberal members unexpectedly withdrew at short notice in what was ‘mildly called a compromise’.5The Times, 14 May 1859, 16 Nov. 1866. At the hustings, ‘and when safely declared to be the sitting member’, he described Lord John Russell’s recent motion, which put paid to Derby’s reform bill, as ‘a most factious and unprincipled act’. Yet, while the Liberal press identified Talbot as a ‘full-blown Tory’, he did not openly pledge support for the Derbyites. Instead, he claimed that he would oppose ‘any measure insulting or injurious to the Roman Catholic religion’, and, ‘notwithstanding all the efforts made by the present Curraghmore interest for the kinsman of that house’, denied that he was his uncle’s nominee. He did not pledge himself to any particular measures, but represented himself instead as ‘an independent supporter’ of the Derby ministry. In spite of public opposition from local Liberal magnates, such as the duke of Devonshire (the two met during Talbot’s canvass of the duke’s tenants at Tallow), substantial financial support from Irish Conservative funds, and the fact that Derby’s ministry appeared well-disposed to Catholic interests, meant that Talbot attracted significant support from the local Catholic clergy. He thus became the first Conservative to hold a seat in County Waterford since 1831.6The Times, 14 May 1859; Freeman’s Journal, 11, 13 May 1859; K.T. Hoppen, ‘Tories, Catholics, and the General Election of 1859’, HJ, 13:1 (1970), 48-67 [64, 66-7]. In all, £1,397 was spent on Talbot’s campaign: PP 1860 (6) (6-I) lvi. 167, 363.

Talbot sat in parliament as a ‘decided Conservative’, his allegiance to the Derbyites further cemented after another of his uncles, Wellington Chetwynd Talbot (1817-98), married Emma Stanley, the daughter of Lord Derby in October 1860.7Dod’s Parliamentary Companion (1859), 294. Wellignton Chetwynd-Talbot was private secretary to Lord Derby in 1852 and 1858, see A. Hawkins, The Forgotten Prime Minister. The 14th Earl of Derby, ii (2008), 251-2, where he is referred to as the youngest son, rather than brother, of the earl of Shrewsbury. Talbot consistently supported the Irish Conservative position by opposing what were considered excessive financial burdens on the country through income tax and liquor duties.8A. Warren, ‘Disraeli, the Conservatives, and the Government of Ireland: Part 1, 1837-1868’, Parliamentary History, 18:1 (1999), 45-64 [56]. He also rendered ‘a very important public service’ as a member of the public petitions committee, to whom Lord Palmerston paid tribute in August 1860. In June 1864, he attended the Conservative meeting which prepared a vote of censure against the government concerning its handling of the Schleswig-Holstein question.9Hansard, 25 Aug. 1860, vol. 160 , cc.1815-7; Daily News, 27 Aug. 1860; The Times, 29 June 1864. Above all, Talbot concerned himself with naval and military affairs, and the ‘proper management’ of the armed forces. At his election, he had promised to ‘advocate that no means shall be spared to keep the army and navy in a highly efficient state’ in order ‘for England to maintain an armed and dignified neutrality’. Accordingly, in February 1864, he voted against Charles Buxton’s motion condemning the bombardment of Kagoshima by Admiral Kuper and, later that year, he sat on the select committee on dockyards.10Freeman’s Journal, 13 May 1859; Belfast News-letter, 20 Nov. 1866; PP 1864 (270) viii. 7. Talbot’s concern for the efficiency and safety of Britain’s Mediterranean fleet led him to introduce a motion to change the proposed site for the new dock at Malta from the River Marsa to French Creek. His extensive arguments against the Marsa scheme eventually prevailed, and, after the decision to relocate the dock was taken in March 1865, Sir John Pakington expressed regret that Talbot was not in his place to witness the government’s volte face, remarking, ‘perhaps it was hardly to be wondered at that the Admiralty should send him off to command a gunboat in the Mediterranean (sic) to spare themselves the triumph with which he must necessarily have greeted this change of policy’.11Hansard, 22 Feb. 1864, vol. 173, cc.889-903; 2 May 1864, vol. 174, cc.2040-9; 6 Mar. 1865, vol. 177, c.1173. For Talbot’s letter on the subject, see The Times, 4 May 1864.

Indeed, throughout his time in parliament, Talbot continued to serve in the Royal Navy. Shortly after his election in 1859, he had been promoted to commander and, in January1865, had been ordered on foreign service, taking command of HMS Fawn at the North American and West Indian station. Consequently, he stood down as MP in favour of Lord Waterford’s son, the earl of Tyrone, at the 1865 general election. After Tyrone vacated the seat upon succeeding to his father’s title in November 1866, Talbot, a newly promoted captain, returned to Ireland to contest the ensuing by-election as ‘an independent supporter of the Conservative Government’.12Belfast News-letter, 24 Jan. 1865; Freeman’s Journal, 16 Apr. 1866; Daily News, 30 Aug. 1866; Pall Mall Gazette, 12 Nov. 1866. With a reform bill under the consideration of the ministry, and a landlord-tenant bill having been promised by the Irish viceroy, Talbot was thought to have a strong chance of retaining the seat for the Conservatives. In his address, he argued that reform ‘should be dealt with in a fair and liberal spirit, with a view to setting this question to rest’.13Freeman’s Journal, 19 Nov. 1866; Belfast News-letter, 20 Nov. 1866. He also criticised the Whigs’ failure to resolve the land tenure question and proposed ‘that every tenant should be secured in the money he has spent in the bona fide improvement of his farm’ and that landlords be induced to grant more leases to tenants for the mutual benefit of both parties. Nevertheless, Talbot was defeated after a bitter and violent contest which was characterized by religious factionalism. His petition against the result of which he petitioned against unsuccessfully.14Freeman’s Journal, 27 Dec. 1886, and see HP Commons, 1832-68: County Waterford.

Thereafter he resumed his naval career. From 1871, he commanded HMS Bristol, a naval cadet training ship at Portsmouth, and in 1876 was appointed captain of the Duke of Wellington, the flagship of the port admiral. Like his father before him, he served as naval aide-de-camp to Queen Victoria from 1880-2, when he was appointed rear admiral. In 1887 he married the sister of baron Walsingham, his first wife, having died in childbirth in 1876, and became the senior officer at Queenstown, Co. Cork. He was promoted to admiral in 1894 and retired from the service in 1896.15Who Was Who, 1897-1915 (3rd edn., 1935), 121; Liverpool Mercury, 11 Feb. 1887. Talbot changed his name to Carpenter in 1868, according to the terms of an inheritance of 4,000 acres at Kiplin Park, near Northallerton in Yorkshire, from his grandmother, the Countess of Tyrconnel.16The Law Times (19 Sept. 1868), xlv, 379. That year, he also became joint-owner, with his brother, of a plantation in Jamaica.17The plantation was purchased from the Shrewsbury estate, which was indebted as a consequence of his father’s ‘passion for speculations’: M. Craton & J. Walvin, A Jamaican plantation: the history of Worthy Park 1670-1970 (1970); Vincent, Disraeli, Derby and the Conservative Party, 334. He died in 1904.