George Bingham, 3rd Earl of Lucan

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Order of St. Anna, 2nd Class (Russia)
  • Order of the Medjidie, First Class (Ottoman Empire)[1]
  • Commander of the Legion of Honour (France)[2]

    • George Charles Bingham, 3rd Earl of Lucan,

    aristocrat and British Army officer. He was one of three men, along with Captain Nolan and Lord Raglan, responsible for the fateful order during the Battle of Balaclava in October 1854 that led to the Light Brigade commander, the Earl of Cardigan, leading the Charge of the Light Brigade
    . He was subsequently promoted to field marshal.

    Lord Lucan was a ruthless landlord during the Great Famine in Ireland, evicting thousands of his Irish tenants and renting his land to wealthy ranchers. He also came up with a solution that allowed Jews to sit in Parliament.

    Life and military career

    George, Lord Bingham, at age 14, painted by his sister Elizabeth Harcourt

    Born the first son of Richard Bingham, 2nd Earl of Lucan, an Anglo-Irish peer, and Elizabeth Bingham (née Belasyse), Lord Bingham (as he was styled up until late June 1839) attended Westminster School but left formal education to be commissioned as an ensign in the 6th Regiment of Foot on 29 August 1816.[3] He transferred to the 11th Light Dragoons on 24 December 1818.[4]

    Lord Bingham became a lieutenant in the

    Russo-Turkish War, which began in 1828, he acted observer with the Imperial Russian Army.[5]

    'The Exterminator'

    Lord Bingham succeeded his father as 3rd Earl of Lucan in the Peerage of Ireland on 30 June 1839 and, having become an Irish Representative Peer in June 1840[7] and having been promoted to colonel on 23 November 1841, he became Lord Lieutenant of Mayo in 1845.[3] During the Great Famine in the late 1840s, he was ruthless and introduced mass evictions from villages such as Ballinrobe. Famously stating that he "would not breed paupers to pay priests," he demolished over 300 homes and evicted 2,000 people in Ballinrobe between 1846 and 1849. He even insisted on closing the workhouse in Castlebar at the height of the Famine. For this, Lord Bingham earned the hatred of many Irishmen and became known as "The Exterminator".[8] He was promoted to major general on 11 November 1851.[9]

    Crimean War

    The Charge of the Light Brigade: it was Lucan who gave the order to Cardigan to lead the charge.

    At the outbreak of the

    Battle of Alma in September 1854 but, on the orders of the army commander, Lord Raglan, he held his division in reserve. This incident earned Lucan the undeserved, but persistent, nickname of "Lord Look-on".[11][12] At the Battle of Balaclava in October 1854, Lucan received an order from Raglan and in turn ordered Cardigan to lead the Charge of the Light Brigade, resulting in heavy British casualties without significant gains.[13] As Lucan brought the Heavy Brigade forward in support, he was lightly wounded in the leg.[14] Raglan blamed Lucan for the loss ("You have lost the light brigade"), and censured him in despatches.[15] Although Lucan complained against this censure, as the relationship between the army commander and the cavalry commander had clearly broken down, he was recalled to England, where he returned at the beginning of March 1855.[12]

    On his arrival, Lucan's demand for a

    Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath on 5 July 1855,[16] and colonel of the 8th Light Dragoons, who had charged with the Light Brigade, on 17 November 1855.[17]

    Later life

    A significant contribution was made by Lucan to Parliament when he produced a solution to the problem of admitting Jews to Parliament. Prior to this, distinguished Jews had declined to take the oath "on the true faith of a Christian" and having not been sworn in as required by statute, were refused voting rights although having been elected an MP. Lucan proposed, by way of a compromise, that each House could decide and modify its own oath. The House of Lords, who had long opposed the admission of Jews, agreed to this. A prominent Jew, Lionel Nathan Rothschild, was thus allowed to enter the House of Commons and was sworn in on 26 July 1858.[18]

    Although Lucan never again saw active duty, he was promoted to

    Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath in 1869.[21][22] He formally retired in October 1877,[23] but after some lobbying he was promoted to field marshal on 21 June 1887.[24] He died at 13 South Street, Park Lane, London, on 10 November 1888 and was buried at Laleham in Middlesex.[3]

    Family

    In 1829, Bingham married Lady Anne Brudenell, seventh daughter of Robert Brudenell, 6th Earl of Cardigan; they had six children, two daughters being still born or dying soon after birth:[3]

    Ancestry

    References

    1. ^ "No. 22107". The London Gazette. 2 March 1858. p. 1251.
    2. ^ "No. 21909". The London Gazette. 4 August 1856. p. 2699.
    3. ^
      doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/2407. Retrieved 9 November 2013. (Subscription or UK public library membership
      required.)
    4. ^ "No. 17454". The London Gazette. 27 February 1818. p. 378.
    5. ^ a b c d Heathcote, p. 41
    6. ^ "No. 18289". The London Gazette. 22 September 1826. p. 2282.
    7. ^ "No. 19870". The London Gazette. 30 June 1840. p. 1548.
    8. ^ "From the files of the DIB...'the exterminator'". History Ireland. 13 March 2013. Retrieved 12 April 2019.
    9. ^ "No. 21262". The London Gazette. 11 November 1851. p. 2966.
    10. ^ "No. 21584". The London Gazette. 18 August 1854. p. 2566.
    11. ISBN 9781844137343
      .
    12. ^ a b Heathcote, p. 42
    13. ^ Calthorpe, p. 132
    14. ^ "No. 21624". The London Gazette. 12 November 1854. p. 3459.
    15. ^ "No. 21624". The London Gazette. 12 November 1854. p. 3456.
    16. ^ "No. 21743". The London Gazette. 10 July 1855. p. 2654.
    17. ^ "No. 21823". The London Gazette. 4 December 1855. p. 4589.
    18. ^ "Journey Bank to Westminster: Lionel de Rothschild's journey to parliament, 1847–1858". Rothschold Archive. Archived from the original on 9 November 2013. Retrieved 9 November 2013.
    19. ^ "No. 22217". The London Gazette. 11 January 1859. p. 79.
    20. ^ "No. 22945". The London Gazette. 3 March 1865. p. 1324.
    21. ^ "No. 23012". The London Gazette. 12 September 1865. p. 4409.
    22. ^ "No. 23503". The London Gazette. 2 June 1869. p. 3179.
    23. ^ "No. 24508". The London Gazette. 2 October 1877. p. 5455.
    24. ^ "No. 25773". The London Gazette. 5 January 1888. p. 223.

    Sources

    Further reading

    External links

    Wikimedia Commons has media related to George Bingham, 3rd Earl of Lucan.
    Parliament of the United Kingdom
    Preceded by Member of Parliament for Mayo
    1826–1830
    With: James Browne     		Succeeded by
    Military offices
    Preceded by
    Sir John Brown
    		 Colonel of the 8th (The King's Royal Irish) Hussars
    1855–1865     		Succeeded by
    Preceded by
    The Viscount Combermere
    		 Colonel of the 1st Regiment of Life Guards
    1865–1888     		Succeeded by
    Honorary titles
    Preceded by Lord Lieutenant of Mayo
    1845–1888     		Succeeded by
    Peerage of Ireland
    Preceded by Earl of Lucan
    1839–1888     		Succeeded by
    Charles Bingham
    Political offices
    Preceded by
    The Earl of Enniskillen
    		 Representative peer for Ireland
    1840–1888     		Succeeded by
    The Lord Clarina
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