Algernon Freeman-Mitford, 1st Baron Redesdale
Encyclopedia
Royal Victorian Order
The Royal Victorian Order is a dynastic order of knighthood and a house order of chivalry recognising distinguished personal service to the order's Sovereign, the reigning monarch of the Commonwealth realms, any members of her family, or any of her viceroys...
, KCB
Order of the Bath
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...
(24 February 1837 – 17 August 1916), of Batsford
Batsford
Batsford is a village and civil parish in the Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, England. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 99. The village is about 1½ miles north-west of Moreton-in-Marsh...
Park, Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....
, and Birdhope Craig, Northumberland
Northumberland
Northumberland is the northernmost ceremonial county and a unitary district in North East England. For Eurostat purposes Northumberland is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "Northumberland and Tyne and Wear" NUTS 2 region...
, was a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
diplomat, collector and writer. Nicknamed "Barty", he was the paternal grandfather of the Mitford sisters.
Early years
Freeman-Mitford was the son of Henry Reveley Mitford (1804–1883) of Exbury House, ExburyExbury
Exbury is a village in Hampshire, England. It lies just in the New Forest, near the Beaulieu River and about a mile from the Solent coast. It is best known as the location of Exbury House, built by the Rothschild family, and the famous Exbury Gardens...
, Hampshire
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...
and the great-grandson of the historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
William Mitford
William Mitford
William Mitford , English historian, was the elder of the two sons of John Mitford, a barrister and his wife Philadelphia Reveley.-Youth:...
, and was educated at Eton
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
and Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church or house of Christ, and thus sometimes known as The House), is one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England...
. While his paternal ancestors were landed gentry
Landed gentry
Landed gentry is a traditional British social class, consisting of land owners who could live entirely off rental income. Often they worked only in an administrative capacity looking after the management of their own lands....
, whose holdings had once included Mitford Castle
Mitford Castle
Mitford Castle is an English castle dating from the end of the 11th century and located at Mitford, Northumberland. It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and a Grade I listed building, enlisted on 20 October 1969. The castle is also officially on the Buildings at Risk Register...
in Northumberland
Northumberland
Northumberland is the northernmost ceremonial county and a unitary district in North East England. For Eurostat purposes Northumberland is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "Northumberland and Tyne and Wear" NUTS 2 region...
, his mother (Georgiana) Jemima was a daughter of the courtier the 3rd Earl of Ashburnham
George Ashburnham, 3rd Earl of Ashburnham
George Ashburnham, 3rd Earl of Ashburnham, KG, GCH, FSA was a British peer.He was the son of the 2nd Earl of Ashburnham and the former Elizabeth Crowley, being styled Viscount St Asaph from birth, and was baptised on 29 January 1761 at St George's, Hanover Square, London, with King George III, the...
, with a noble ancestry through the Earl of Beverley
Algernon Percy, 1st Earl of Beverley
Algernon Percy, 1st Earl of Beverley, FSA was a British peer, known as Lord Algernon Percy from 1766–86....
. His parents separated in 1840 when Redesdale was just three years old, and his mother remarried to a Mr. Molyneaux.
Diplomacy
Entering the Foreign Office in 1858, Mitford was appointed Third Secretary of the British Embassy in St Petersburg. After service in the Diplomatic Corps in Peking, he went to JapanJapan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
as second secretary to the British Legation at the time of the exciting but difficult Meiji Restoration
Meiji Restoration
The , also known as the Meiji Ishin, Revolution, Reform or Renewal, was a chain of events that restored imperial rule to Japan in 1868...
. There he met Ernest Satow and wrote Tales of Old Japan
Tales of Old Japan
Tales of Old Japan is an anthology of short stories, compiled by Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford, Lord Redesdale, writing under the better known name of A.B. Mitford. These stories focus on the varying aspects of Japanese life in centuries past...
(1871) - a book credited with making such classical Japanese tales as the "Forty-seven Ronin
Forty-seven Ronin
The revenge of the , also known as the Forty-seven Samurai, the Akō vendetta, or the took place in Japan at the start of the 18th century...
" first known to a wide Western public. He resigned from the diplomatic service in 1873.
Following the 1902 Anglo-Japanese Alliance
Anglo-Japanese Alliance
The first was signed in London at what is now the Lansdowne Club, on January 30, 1902, by Lord Lansdowne and Hayashi Tadasu . A diplomatic milestone for its ending of Britain's splendid isolation, the alliance was renewed and extended in scope twice, in 1905 and 1911, before its demise in 1921...
, in 1906 he accompanied Prince Arthur
Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn
Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn was a member of the shared British and Saxe-Coburg and Gotha royal family who served as the Governor General of Canada, the 10th since Canadian Confederation.Born the seventh child and third son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and...
on a visit to Japan to present the Emperor Meiji
Emperor Meiji
The or was the 122nd emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession, reigning from 3 February 1867 until his death...
with the Order of the Garter
Order of the Garter
The Most Noble Order of the Garter, founded in 1348, is the highest order of chivalry, or knighthood, existing in England. The order is dedicated to the image and arms of St...
. He was asked by courtiers there about Japanese ceremonies that had disappeared since 1868. He is one of the people credited with introducing Japanese knotweed
Japanese knotweed
Japanese Knotweed is a large, herbaceous perennial plant, native to eastern Asia in Japan, China and Korea...
to England.
Public life
From 1874 to 1886 Mitford acted as secretary to HM Office of Works, involved in the lengthy restoration of the Tower of LondonTower of London
Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space...
and in landscaping parts of Hyde Park
Hyde Park, London
Hyde Park is one of the largest parks in central London, United Kingdom, and one of the Royal Parks of London, famous for its Speakers' Corner.The park is divided in two by the Serpentine...
such as "The Dell". From 1887, he was a member of the Royal Commission on Civil Services. He also sat as Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
for Stratford-on-Avon
Stratford-on-Avon (UK Parliament constituency)
-By-elections:-Notes and references:...
between 1892 and 1895. In 1886, Mitford inherited the substantial estates of his first cousin twice removed, John Freeman-Mitford, 1st Earl of Redesdale
John Freeman-Mitford, 1st Earl of Redesdale
John Thomas Freeman-Mitford, 1st Earl of Redesdale, 2nd Baron Redesdale , was the only son and heir of John Freeman-Mitford, 1st Baron Redesdale....
. In accordance with the will he assumed by Royal license the additional surname of Freeman.
He substantially rebuilt Batsford House beside Batsford
Batsford
Batsford is a village and civil parish in the Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, England. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 99. The village is about 1½ miles north-west of Moreton-in-Marsh...
in Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....
in the Victorian Gothic manorial style, at such a cost that it had to be sold within a few years of his death. It was bought by Lord Dulverton and is still owned by his descendants.
Peerage
In 1902 the Redesdale title was revived when he was raised to the peerage as Baron Redesdale, of RedesdaleRedesdale
Redesdale is a valley iin the western part of the county of Northumberland, in northeast England. This area contains the valley of the River Rede, a tributary of the North Tyne River. Redesdale includes the settlements of Elsdon, Otterburn, Rochester, Byrness and Carter Bar.Historically this...
in the County of Northumberland.
Pre- and extra-marital fatherhood
During his time in Japan he was said to have fathered two children with a geishaGeisha
, Geiko or Geigi are traditional, female Japanese entertainers whose skills include performing various Japanese arts such as classical music and dance.-Terms:...
lady. Later he was considered to be one of the possible fathers of Clementine Hozier
Clementine Churchill, Baroness Spencer-Churchill
Clementine Ogilvy Spencer-Churchill, Baroness Spencer-Churchill, GBE, CStJ was the wife of Sir Winston Churchill and a life peeress in her own right.-Early life:...
(1885–1977), in the course of an affair with his wife's sister Blanche. Clementine married Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
in 1908.
Literary translator
In his closing years Lord Redesdale translated into English, edited, and wrote extensive effusive Introductions of two of Houston Stewart ChamberlainHouston Stewart Chamberlain
Houston Stewart Chamberlain was a British-born German author of books on political philosophy, natural science and the German composer Richard Wagner. He later became a German citizen. Chamberlain married Wagner's daughter, Eva, some years after Wagner's death...
's books: Foundations of the Nineteenth Century and Immanuel Kant - A Study and Comparison with Goethe, Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance...
, Bruno
Bruno
Bruno is a male given name. It is derived from the Germanic word brun meaning "brown". It is also one of the most frequent Italian surnames. It also occurs very frequently in continental Europe and parts of Brazil as a given name for men and boys...
, Plato
Plato
Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...
, and Descartes, published by John Lane at the Bodley Head, London, in 1910 and 1914.
Marriage
Lord Redesdale married in 1874 Lady Clementina Gertrude Helen (d. 1932), the daughter of David Ogilvy, 10th Earl of AirlieDavid Ogilvy, 10th Earl of Airlie
David Graham Drummond Ogilvy, 10th Earl of Airlie KT, DL , styled Lord Ogilvy from birth until 1849, was a Scottish peer.-Background and education:...
by his spouse Blanche, the daughter of Edward Stanley, 2nd Baron Stanley of Alderley
Edward Stanley, 2nd Baron Stanley of Alderley
Edward John Stanley, 2nd Baron Stanley of Alderley PC , known as The Lord Eddisbury between 1848 and 1850, was a British politician.-Background:...
. They had five sons and four daughters, of whom:
- Clement, the eldest son, killed in action in 1915 in the Battle of LoosBattle of LoosThe Battle of Loos was one of the major British offensives mounted on the Western Front in 1915 during World War I. It marked the first time the British used poison gas during the war, and is also famous for the fact that it witnessed the first large-scale use of 'new' or Kitchener's Army...
, whose posthumous daughter Clementine married Sir Alfred Beit. - David Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron RedesdaleDavid Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron RedesdaleDavid Bertram Ogilvy Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale, , was an English landowner and was the father of the Mitford sisters, in whose various novels and memoirs he is depicted.-Ancestry:...
, second but eldest surviving son, who was the father of the famous Mitford sisters. - Frances Mitford, daughter, who later married Alexander KearseyAlexander KearseyAlexander Horace Cyril Kearsey DSO, OBE was a career highly decorated British Army officer who served in the Second Boer War and World War I. He was also an English cricketer, but his military career limited his cricketing appearances. The son of Francis Kearsey, he was born at Burstow Hall,...
.
See also
- Hugh CortazziHugh CortazziSir Arthur Henry Hugh Cortazzi, GCMG is a British diplomat. Best known as Hugh Cortazzi, he is also a distinguished international businessman, academic, author and prominent Japanologist...
, Mitford's Japan : Memories and Recollections, 1866-1906, Format: Paperback, Published: January 2003, ISBN 1-903350-07-7 - Anglo-Japanese relationsAnglo-Japanese relationsThe history of the relationship between Britain and Japan began in 1600 with the arrival of William Adams on the shores of Kyūshū at Usuki in Ōita Prefecture...
. - Mitford familyMitford familyThe Mitford family is a minor aristocratic English family that traces its origins in Northumberland back to the time of the Norman conquest. In the Middle Ages they had been Border Reivers based in Redesdale. The main family line had seats at Mitford Castle, Mitford Old Manor House and from 1828...