Benjamin Handley was an English soldier and Liberal

Liberal Party (UK)

The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...

 politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1832 to 1835. His family were prominent in Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...

 during the 18th and 19th Centuries.

Biography

Handley was the third son of William Handley of Newark. He entered the army in 1805 and served in the 9th Light Dragoons in South America and in the Peninsula war. In 1813, whilst crossing the Tagus

Tagus

The Tagus is the longest river on the Iberian Peninsula. It is long, in Spain, along the border between Portugal and Spain and in Portugal, where it empties into the Atlantic Ocean at Lisbon. It drains an area of . The Tagus is highly utilized for most of its course...

 river, his boat capsized. Although he survived, his cousin (also called Benjamin) who was in the same boat drowned.

After returning to England Handley lived at Pointon

Pointon

Pointon is a small village situated near Bourne, in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. It forms part of the civil parish of Pointon and Sempringham, and the population of the civil parish in 2001 was 507....

, Lincolnshire. At the 1832 UK general election he was elected 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 Boston

Boston (UK Parliament constituency)

Boston was a parliamentary borough in Lincolnshire, which elected two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons from 1547 until 1885, and then one member from 1885 until 1918, when the constituency was abolished.-History:...

, a seat that he held until 1835.

Handley died at Pointon at the age of 74.

External links