WYNDHAM, Percy Scawen (1835-1911), of 44 Belgrave Square, London; Petworth House, Sussex; Cockermouth Castle, Cumberland and Isel Hall, Cockermouth, Cumberland

A Conservative of ‘decided and independent character’, Wyndham was returned for Cumberland West in 1860, holding his seat for a quarter of a century.1The Times, 14 Mar. 1911. His father, George Wyndham, a colonel in the army, was the first illegitimate son of the enigmatic George O’Brien Wyndham, the third earl of Egremont, and was adopted as heir to the extensive Egremont estates in 1845 before being raised to the peerage as baron Leconfield in 1859. After leaving Eton, Wyndham read and travelled with a tutor in Italy before joining the Coldstream guards, a regiment in which his uncle, General Sir Henry Wyndham, MP for Cockermouth 1852-1857 and Cumberland West 1857-1860, had served with distinction.2Ibid; R.S. Ferguson, Cumberland and Westmoreland MPs from the Restoration to the Reform Bill of 1867 (1871), 445-6. Initially found unfit for service, Wyndham insisted on sailing to Varna with his battalion following the outbreak of the Crimean War, but he was invalided home with fever before he saw action. Thereafter he resided at the family seat at Petworth House, Sussex, where he ‘embarked upon the normal and congenial round of a county squire’.3J.A. Biggs-Davison, George Wyndham: a study in Toryism (1951), 8.

In August 1860 Wyndham was brought forward on his family’s interest for the vacancy at Cumberland West, following the death of his uncle. Facing accusations that he was ‘young and untried’, he introduced himself to the constituency with a speech calling for non-intervention in foreign affairs, as ‘any other course would only embroil us with old allies, and do little for our new friends’. He was also unequivocally opposed to the ballot, describing it as ‘a cowardly, sneaking and un-English measure, very unfair to the non-electors of the country’.4Carlisle Journal, 31 Aug. 1860. Elected unopposed, the Liberal-supporting Carlisle Journal mocked his credentials, stating that ‘Mr Percy Wyndham is to be stuck in the House of Commons as a sort of monumental tablet to the memory of his uncle’. The paper also questioned whether he held any firm political principles, suggesting that he was ‘a newly-rigged and unballasted [sic] craft at sea, without helm, compass, or pilot’.5Ibid.

In Parliament, however, Wyndham, after a tentative start, proved to be an indefatigable presence as Conservative member for Cumberland West. He attended frequently, spoke regularly on a range of issues, and, in his second Parliament, developed positions which were in advance of his own party, which he was not afraid to criticise. In his first Parliament, though, he followed Disraeli into the division lobby on most major issues, including his censure of the government’s handling of the Danish war, 8 July 1864, and he voted against Locke King’s county franchise bill, 13 Mar. 1861, and Baines’ borough franchise bill, 10 Apr. 1861. In a key debate on the American civil war, he advocated the recognition of the Southern Confederacy, and claimed that ‘the men in the Northern State ... were engaged in a hopeless contest’, 30 June 1863. A dogged questioner of ministers, he proposed to the secretary of state for war that recruitment for the army could be improved by allowing soldiers who had served for eighteen years to be appointed to positions in the civil service, 20 Mar. 1865, and informed the president of the board of trade that the government needed to intervene in the question of railway safety, 4 July 1865, but both suggestions were rebuffed. He also took a keen interest in the 1861 Salmon Fisheries Act, insisting that the legislation needed amending, 29 Apr. 1864. He served on the subsequent select committee.6PP 1865 (358), xii. 438. Wyndham also sat on select committees on the Northallerton election petition, military reserve funds, and extradition: PP 1866 (223), xi. 205; PP 1867 (453), vii. 713; PP 1867-68 (298), vi. 809; PP 1867-68 (393), vii. 129.

Following his unopposed return at the 1865 general election, Wyndham focused much of his efforts on attempting to steer his mines assessment bill through Parliament.7Carlisle Journal, 18 July 1865. Having initially made his case that iron, coal and lead mines should be rated for poor relief as many of the men who worked in these mines were frequently injured and became dependent on rates, 2 Mar. 1866, Wyndham successfully introduced a bill to assess mines, woodlands and plantations to local rates, 19 Feb. 1867. At the second reading, his motion was deferred to a select committee, 10 Apr. 1867. As chair of the committee, Wyndham assiduously questioned witnesses, displaying a mastery of detail.8PP 1867 (321), xiii. 127-83. He re-introduced his bill the following session, 6 May 1868, but, to his frustration, it faced considerable opposition in committee from MPs on both sides of the house who felt that it dealt inadequately with the delicate issue of rating coal mines.9Hansard, 8 July 1868, vol. 193, cc. 848-53; 15 July 1868, vol. 193, cc. 1220-4. The bill was subsequently withdrawn, 29 July 1868.

Wyndham’s interventions in debate in this period reflected his progressive opinions. Although he had initially voted against the tests abolition (Oxford) bill, 16 Mar. 1864, he subsequently declared that, after further inquiry, he ‘could not believe that the religious teaching given in the colleges would be interfered with’, and divided, against his party, in favour of the bill, 13 June 1866. Wyndham also showed marked independence in his votes on the major clauses of the representation of the people bill, dividing with Gladstone for a reduction of the copyhold franchise, 20 May 1867, and supporting John Stuart Mill’s amendment for the enfranchisement of women, 20 May 1867. Significantly, having voted against Gladstone’s resolution on the Irish Church, 3 Apr. 1868, he was noticeably critical of the Disraeli ministry’s decision to stay in power following its defeat on the issue. Arguing that ‘the government of the country and the direction of legislation on all important questions no longer remained in the hands of the government’, he portrayed the ministry as a ‘weak man’, and warned Disraeli that ‘there were some at least of his supporters who would refuse to be dragged through the mud, in order to enable the government to remain’, 21 May 1868.

Wyndham continued to sit for Cumberland West until the constituency’s abolition in 1885. On most issues, he remained loyal to the Conservatives, delivering lectures and speeches against Gladstone’s ‘Bulgarian Atrocities’ campaign and joining the council of the Fair Trade League. However, on religious questions, he remained in advance of his party, and supported Charles Bradlaugh’s admission to the Commons.10The Times, 14 Mar. 1911. In 1885 he helped found ‘The Souls’, a group established to provide the aristocracy with a social space where they could meet without political infighting.11J. Abdy and C. Gere, The Souls (1984). He died at his Wiltshire residence, Clouds House, in March 1911. He was remembered as a ‘remarkably cultivated and well read’ man who ‘spoke and wrote fluently and forcibly with a kindly vein of humour’.12The Times, 14 Mar. 1911. He was succeeded by his eldest son George, Conservative MP for Dover, 1889-1913, who served as chief secretary for Ireland, 1900-1905. Wyndham’s papers and correspondence are part of the extensive Petworth House archives, held by the West Sussex Record Office.13W. Sussex RO., PHA.