Rowland Hunt

Rowland Hunt (13 March 1858 – 30 November 1943) was an English politician. The Lord of the Manor of Baschurch in Shropshire,[1] he sat in the House of Commons from 1903 to 1918 as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ludlow.[2]

Early life and family

Born at Market Harborough, Leicestershire,[3] Hunt was the son of Rowland Hunt, of Boreatton Hall, Baschurch, Shropshire and his wife Florence Marianne, daughter of Richard B. Humfrey, of Kibworth Hall, Leicestershire, and Stoke Albany House, Northamptonshire.[1][4] The Hunts were one of the principal families of north Shropshire.[5] Hunt's younger sister Agnes Hunt (1866–1948) worked with physically disabled people;[4] his uncle George Ward Hunt was Chancellor of the Exchequer under Disraeli.[5]

Hunt was educated at Eton and Magdalene College, Cambridge.[1]

He served with the Lovat Scouts during the Second Boer War, and later became a Major in the City of London Yeomanry.[6]

Hunt was a county cricketer for Shropshire, mainly as a wicket keeper, between 1879 and 1881.[7]

In 1889, Hunt married Georgina Veronica Davidson, daughter of Colonel Duncan Davidson of Tulloch Castle in Dingwall. They had two sons and one daughter.[1][6] He later married Harriette Evelyn Hunt.[1][6]

Political career

Robert Jasper More, the Liberal Unionist MP for Ludlow, died in November 1903.[8] Hunt was selected by the Ludlow's Conservatives and its Liberal Unionists as the joint Unionist candidate for the resulting by-election.[5] He then briefly joined the National Party in 1917, then the Conservatives.

During a parliamentary debate on the bill which became the Representation of the People Act 1918, he opposed the extension of the voting franchise:

"There are obvious disadvantages about having women in Parliament. I do not know what is going to be done about their hats. How is a poor little man to get on with a couple of women wearing enormous hats in front of him?"[9]

Hunt was also antisemitic, believing a Jewish plutocracy was secretly conspiring to subvert political life.[10]

He died at Lindley Green, Broseley, Shropshire, in November 1943 aged 85.[3]

References

1. Arthur G. M., Hesilridge (1916). Debrett's House of Commons and The Judicial Bench 1916. London: Dean & Son. p. 85. Retrieved 20 June 2017.
2. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "L" (part 4)
3. Percival, Tony (1999). Shropshire Cricketers 1844-1998. A.C.S. Publications, Nottingham. p. 17. ISBN 1-902171-17-9.Published under Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians.
4. Sankey, A.E.; Hutchins, Roger. "Agnes Hunt". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/34054. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
5. "Election Intelligence". The Times. London, England. 8 December 1903. p. 7. Retrieved 20 June 2017 – via The Times Digital Archive.
6. "Obituary: Major Rowland Hunt". The Times. London, England. 1 December 1943. p. 7. Retrieved 20 June 2017 – via The Times Digital Archive.
7. Shropshire Cricketers 1844-1998, pages 17, 46.
8. "Obituary: Mr Jasper More, MP". The Times. London, England. 27 November 1903. p. 6. Retrieved 20 June 2017 – via The Times Digital Archive.
9. Gillett, Francesca (29 April 2018). "Women's suffrage: 10 reasons why men opposed votes for women". BBC news uk. Retrieved 20 December 2019.
10. Jay P. Corrin, Catholic Intellectuals and the Challenge of Democracy (University of Notre Dame Pess, 2002)

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Rowland Hunt