Henry Meysey-Thompson, 1st Baron Knaresborough

Meysey-Thompson was born at Kirby Hall, near Great Ouseburn, North Yorkshire, the son of Sir Harry Meysey-Thompson, 1st Baronet and his wife Elizabeth Anne Croft, daughter of Sir John Croft, 1st Baronet. His brothers, Albert and Charles won the FA Cup with the Wanderers in 1872 and 1873 respectively.{{cite book |last= Warsop|first= Keith|title= The Early FA Cup Finals and the Southern Amateurs|year= 2004|publisher= SoccerData|isbn= 1-899468-78-1|page=129}}

He was educated at Eton College and at Trinity College, Cambridge where he won his blue in athletics and was awarded BA in 1868.

File:Henry Meysey-Thompson, Vanity Fair, 1887-06-04.jpg published in Vanity Fair in 1887.]]

He became a private secretary to William Ewart Gladstone.{{acad|id=THM863HM|name=Meysey-Thompson, Henry Meysey}} In 1874, he succeeded to the Meysey-Thompson baronetcy which had been created for his father less than two months earlier. He was a J.P. for the North and West Ridings of Yorkshire, and captain in the Yorkshire Hussars Yeoman Cavalry.[https://archive.org/stream/debrettshouseo1886londuoft#page/148/mode/2up Debretts House of Commons and the Judicial Bench 1886]

At the 1880 general election Meysey-Thompson was elected Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) for Knaresborough, but his election was declared void on 23 July 1880.{{Rayment-hc|k|2|date=March 2012}} In 1885 he stood for parliament unsuccessfully at North Lincolnshire. At the 1885 general election he was elected MP for Brigg.{{Rayment-hc|b|5|date=March 2012}} However, in 1886, as one of the MPs who opposed Gladstone's Irish Home Rule Bill, he joined the breakaway Liberal Unionist Party, but was not re-elected.

Meysey-Thompson was elected MP for Handsworth (on the outskirts of Birmingham), at the 1892 general election and held that seat until he was ennobled on 26 December 1905 as Baron Knaresborough, of Kirkby Hall in the County of York.{{London Gazette |issue=27871 |date=5 January 1906 |page=107}}{{Rayment-hc|h|1|date=March 2012}}

Lord Knaresborough was chairman of the North Eastern Railway from 1912 to 1922.

File:Lady Meysey-Thompson.jpg, c. 1901]]

On 21 April 1885, Meysey-Thompson married Ethel Adeline Pottinger (1864–1922), a daughter of Sir Henry Pottinger, 3rd Baronet.{{cite web |title=Ethel Adeline (née Pottinger), Lady Knaresborough |url=https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp124613/ethel-adeline-nee-pottinger-lady-knaresborough |website=npg.org.uk |publisher=National Portrait Gallery, London |access-date=18 July 2019 |language=en}} Around 1901, his wife was painted by the American portraitist John Singer Sargent.{{cite book |last1=Sargent, John Singer |title=Delphi Complete Works of John Singer Sargent (Illustrated) |date=2015 |publisher=Delphi Classics |page=178 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AKicCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT178 |access-date=18 July 2019 |language=en|author1-link=John Singer Sargent }} Henry and Ethel were the parents of one son and four daughters, including:

• Violet Ethel Meysey-Thompson (1886–1960), who married Alexander Moore Vandeleur. After his death, she married Sir Algar Howard.
• Claude Henry Meysey-Thompson (1887–1915), who died during World War I at Ypres from wounds received in action.
• Helen Winifred Meysey-Thompson (1889–1958), who married Richard Legh, 3rd Baron Newton (1888–1960).{{cite web |title=Helen Winifred Legh (née Meysey-Thompson), Lady Newton |url=https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp135415/helen-winifred-legh-nee-meysey-thompson-lady-newton |website=npg.org.uk |publisher=National Portrait Gallery, London |access-date=18 July 2019 |language=en}}
• Doris Mary Pottinger Meysey-Thompson (1899–1953), who married Captain Francis Egerton, grandson of Royal Navy Admiral Francis Egerton
• Gwendolen Carlis Meysey-Thompson (1903–1989), who married Lt.-Col. Sir Charles Richmond Brown, 4th Baronet (1902–1995) in 1951. They divorced in 1968.

He died in London at the age of 83. The peerage became extinct on the death of Lord Knaresborough in 1929, but the baronetcy passed to a nephew, Algar de Clifford Charles Meysey-Thompson.

Through his daughter Helen he was a grandfather of Peter Richard Legh, 4th Baron Newton, and through his daughter Violet, he was a grandfather of the distinguished soldier Giles Vandeleur.{{cite web |last=Lundy |first=Darryl |url=http://www.thepeerage.com/p1887.htm#i18867 |page=1887 § 18867 |title=Sir Henry Meysey Meysey-Thompson |publisher= The Peerage}}{{Unreliable source?|failed=y |date=September 2012}}{{cite web |last=Lundy |first=Darryl |url=http://www.thepeerage.com/p3090.htm |title=Captain Claude Henry Meysey Meysey-Thompson |publisher= The Peerage}}{{Unreliable source?|failed=y |date=September 2012}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{Hansard-contribs | sir-henry-meysey-thompson | Henry Meysey-Thompson }}
• {{NPG name}}
• {{cite book | last=Hesilrige | first=Arthur G. M. | year=1921 | title=Debrett's Peerage and Titles of courtesy | url=https://archive.org/details/debrettspeeraget00unse/page/532 | location=160A, Fleet street, London, UK | publisher=Dean & Son | page=532 }}

{{S-start}}

{{s-par|uk}}

{{succession box

| title = Member of Parliament for Knaresborough

| years = 1880–1881

| before = Basil Thomas Woodd

| after = Thomas Collins

}}

{{s-new | constituency}}

{{s-ttl

| title = Member of Parliament for Brigg

| years = 1885–1886

}}

{{s-aft | after = Samuel Danks Waddy }}

{{succession box

| title = Member of Parliament for Handsworth

| years = 1892–1905

| before = Henry Samuel Wiggin

| after = Ernest Meysey-Thompson

}}

{{s-reg|uk-bt}}

{{succession box

| title = Baronet
(of Kirby Hall)

| years = 1874–1929

| before = Harry Stephen Meysey-Thompson

| after = Algar de Clifford Charles Meysey-Thompson

}}

{{s-reg|uk}}

{{s-new | creation }}

{{s-ttl

| title = Baron Knaresborough

| years = 1905–1929

}}

{{s-non | reason = Extinct }}

{{s-bus}}

{{s-bef|before=John Lloyd Wharton}}

{{s-ttl|title=Chairman of the North Eastern Railway |years=1912–1922 }}

{{s-aft|after=William Whitelaw |as=Chairman,
London and North Eastern Railway}}

{{S-end}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Meysey-Thompson, Henry}}

Category:1845 births

Category:People educated at Eton College

Knaresborough

Category:Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies

Category:UK MPs 1880–1885

Category:UK MPs 1885–1886

Category:UK MPs 1892–1895

Category:UK MPs 1895–1900

Category:UK MPs 1900–1906

Category:UK MPs who were granted peerages

Category:1929 deaths

Category:North Eastern Railway (United Kingdom) people

Category:Liberal Unionist Party MPs for English constituencies

Category:Liberal Unionist Party peers

Category:Peers created by Edward VII

Category:English justices of the peace