Edward Birkbeck

Sir Edward Birkbeck, 1st Baronet

DL (11 October 1838 – 2 September 1908) was a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom

.

Biography

Birkbeck was born in 1838 and served as Conservative MP for

County of Norfolk on 9 March 1886.^[1]

The baronetage became extinct in 1908 on his death.

Birkbeck resided at

Horstead, Norfolk, remodelled in the Tudor style in 1835. He entertained Lord Salisbury there on at least one occasion (1887), and bred Jersey cattle there. Sir Edward greatly improved the farm buildings, adding, among other things, a watertower in the Italian style that remains a local landmark, cottages and one of the two lodges facing towards Buxton

.

Sir Edward served as, among other things, President of the National Sea Fisheries Protection Association, and Chairman of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.

In June 1902 he was on board German torpedo boat S. 42 when it sank off Cuxhaven, after it was accidentally run over by the steam ship SS Frisby. Sir Edward had been granted passage in the torpedo boat from Heligoland to Cuxhaven, returning from the Dover to Heligoland yacht race, and survived unharmed, though the captain and several German crew members drowned.^[2]

Sir Edward Birkbeck died on 2 September 1908. The Horstead Hall estate passed to a collateral branch of the family. His wife survived him. A branch of the family still resides in the area, at

Rippon Hall, a mansion in much the same style between Buxton and Reepham

.

References

^ "No. 25564". The London Gazette. 2 March 1886. p. 1027.
^ "Naval & Military intelligence". The Times. No. 36804. London. 26 June 1902. p. 9.

External links

Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Edward Birkbeck

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Sir Edmund Lacon	Sir Edmund Lacon	Succeeded by Herbert Cozens-Hardy
New constituency	Member of Parliament for East Norfolk 1885 – 1892	Succeeded by Sir Robert Price
Baronetage of the United Kingdom
New creation	Baronet (of Horstead Hall) 1886–1908	Extinct

[1] "No. 25564". The London Gazette. 2 March 1886. p. 1027.

[2] "Naval & Military intelligence". The Times. No. 36804. London. 26 June 1902. p. 9.

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