WYNDHAM, Henry (1790-1860), of Cockermouth Castle, Cumberland and Mount Street, Grosvenor Square, London

A distinguished army officer and Waterloo hero, Wyndham was born at the family seat of Petworth, Sussex, the second illegitimate son of George O’Brien Wyndham, the third earl of Egremont, an enigmatic character noted for his patronage of the arts as well as his philandering. Egremont subsequently married Elizabeth Ilive, Wyndham’s mother, in 1801, but his continued infidelities provoked a permanent separation.1C. Rowell, ‘Wyndham, George O’Brien, third earl of Egremont (1751-1837)’, Oxf. DNB., www.oxforddnb.com. Wyndham entered the army in 1806, serving in the Peninsular campaigns and at the battle of Waterloo, where he made a daring, though unsuccessful attempt to capture Napoleon’s brother, Jerome.2C. Dalton, The Waterloo roll call: with biographical notes and anecdotes (1904), 109; R.S. Ferguson, Cumberland and Westmoreland MPs from the Restoration to the Reform Bill of 1867 (1871), 4456. In 1825 he became aide-de-camp to the duke of York, a position which undoubtedly facilitated his appointment as a general in 1837 at the relatively young age of 47.3See evidence given to inquiry into naval and military promotion and retirement: PP 1840 (235), xxii. 110.

Wyndham’s first three attempts to enter Parliament were unsuccessful. At the 1837 general election he was proposed, without his knowledge, as a Conservative for his home constituency of Sussex West.4Hampshire Advertiser, 29 July 1837. Despite his father’s misgivings, Wyndham belatedly accepted the nomination, but following a brief and ill-organised campaign he was defeated in third place.5Standard, 3 Aug. 1837. Charles Greville, however, later noted that had Egremont ‘lifted his finger’, Wyndham would have been returned.6Cited in H.A. Wyndham, A family history, 1688-1837: the Wyndhams of Somerset, Sussex, and Wiltshire (1950), ii. 347. In June 1840 he unsuccessfully challenged the re-election of Edward Horsman (who had been appointed lord of the treasury) at Cockermouth, where he had inherited his father’s estates, and, contesting the borough again at the 1841 general election, he finished bottom of the poll.7Morning Post, 2 June 1840; The Times, 21 June 1841.

At the 1852 general election Wyndham was returned for Cockermouth following a hard fought campaign. Several electors petitioned against his return on the grounds of bribery and treating, 23 Nov. 1852, but the election committee confirmed his return, 19 Apr. 1853.8W.W. Bean, The parliamentary representation of the six northern counties of England (1890), 74-5. An occasional attender, Wyndham followed Disraeli into the division lobby on most major issues, and voted for Roebuck’s censure of the cabinet, 19 July 1855, and Cobden’s censure motion on Canton, 3 Mar. 1857.9In the 1853 session he was present for 84 out of 257 divisions and in 1856 he was present for 47 out of 198: Daily News, 21 Sept. 1853; J.P. Gassiot, Third letter to J.A. Roebuck: with a full analysis of the divisions of the House of Commons during the last session of Parliament (1857), 4. Though he rarely spoke in debate, he was a dogged questioner of ministers concerning military matters, including pensions to officers’ windows, 27 Apr. 1855, and promotion in the army, 18 Mar. 1858.

The high point of Wyndham’s parliamentary career was his success in securing a reduction in stage carriage duties. In June 1855 he moved a resolution declaring that ‘the laws relating to the assessment of duties on stage carriages’ should be ‘immediately modified’. His motion was based on ‘the diminution of the supply of horses’ for military purposes, as the breed was being discouraged by the heavy duties levied upon stage coaches and omnibuses.10Hansard, 26 June 1855, vol. 139, cc. 209-18. Although opposed by the chancellor of the exchequer, Sir George Cornewall Lewis, the motion was vigorously supported by Disraeli, and subsequently passed, leading to the duty being reduced from 1 ½ d. to 1d. per mile.11Ibid. Highlighting Wyndham’s role in securing the reduction, John Edwin Bradfield, the secretary of the United Stage-Coach Proprietors, insisted that ‘had it not been for that gallant member of the House of Commons, they would not have been able to effect what they had effected’.12Morning Post, 21 Sept. 1855. In 1856 he was presented with a four-horse whip with carved ivory handle and gold mounts by a deputation from the English coach proprietors as a ‘token’ of their gratitude.13Newcastle Courant, 9 May 1856.

At the 1857 general election Wyndham left his ‘first love’ of Cockermouth to contest a safer seat at West Cumberland.14Morning Chronicle, 6 Aug. 1860. Despite vigorous Liberal opposition, he topped the poll.15Ibid., 17 Mar. 1857. He voted against Palmerston’s conspiracy to murder bill, 19 Feb. 1858, and for Derby’s reform bill, 31 Mar. 1859, and was re-elected without opposition at the 1859 general election. However, his health declining, he rarely attended the Commons thereafter. He was knighted in June 1859.

Wyndham died in harness at Cockermouth Castle in August 1860, having ‘been somewhat indisposed for some time’.16The Times, 6 Aug. 1860. He was succeeded in his estates by his elder brother, George, who had been created Lord Leconfield in 1859. His political accomplishments never eclipsed his military ones, but he was remembered as a ‘fine old English gentlemen’ and a ‘Waterloo hero’ who earned ‘great respect even among those who differed from him’.17Ibid. Wyndham’s papers and correspondence are part of the extensive Petworth House archives, held by the West Sussex Record Office.18W. Sussex RO., PHA.