Arthur Montagu Brookfield

Arthur Montagu Brookfield
"East Sussex" Brookfield as caricatured by Spy (Leslie Ward) in Vanity Fair, September 1898
Member of the United Kingdom Parliament for Rye
In office 1885–1903
Personal details
Born	18 March 1853
Died	3 March 1940 (aged 86)
Political party	Conservative

Arthur Montagu Brookfield (18 March 1853 – 3 March 1940) was a British army officer, diplomat, author and Conservative politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1885 to 1903.

Biography

Brookfield was the son of Rev. William Henry Brookfield, curate of St. Luke's, Berwick Street, and Jane Octavia, daughter of Sir Charles Elton, 6th Baronet. He was educated at Rugby School and Jesus College, Cambridge.^[1] He served as a Lieutenant in the 13th Hussars in India and retired from the regular army in 1880. He was Colonel commanding the 1st Cinque Ports VRC and was a JP for Sussex.^[2]

At the 1885 general election, Brookfield was elected Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Rye.^[3] In parliament he was responsible for the Uniforms Act of 1894. During his time in parliament, he commanded a battalion of the Imperial Yeomanry in the Second Anglo-Boer War.^[4] Brookfield left his parliamentary seat in 1903 to become British Consul at Danzig, then in West Prussia. In 1910 he became British Consul at Savannah, Georgia, which was a shipping point for the cotton trade between the U.S. and Great Britain.

He was appointed a Knight of Grace of the Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem in England (KGStJ) in August 1901.^[5]

Bibliography

Brookfield wrote five novels, a book of advice on giving speeches and an autobiographic sketch:

• The Bachelor (1879)
• Post Mortem: A Story (1881)
• The Autobiography of Thomas Allen V3 (1882)
• The Apparition (1884)
• Simiocracy (1884)
• The Speaker's ABC (1892)
• Annals of a chequered life (1930)

Family

Brookfield married in 1877 Olive Harriet Hamilton, daughter of James Murray Hamilton of Preston, N.B. and of Buffalo, U.S.A.^[2] His brother Charles Brookfield was an actor playwright and journalist.

References

1. "Brookfield, Arthur Montagu (BRKT870AM)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
2. Debretts House of Commons and the Judicial Bench 1886
3. Craig, F. W. S. (1983) [1989]. British parliamentary election results 1885–1918 (2nd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. p. 407. ISBN 0-900178-27-2.
4. South African War
5. The London Gazette: no. 27344. p. 5256. 9 August 1901.

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Arthur Brookfield
• Portraits of Arthur Montagu Brookfield at the National Portrait Gallery, London
  

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