Henry Sturt, 1st Baron Alington

{{Short description|British peer and Conservative Party politician}}

{{Infobox officeholder

| honorific_prefix = The Right Honourable

| name = The Lord Alington

| image = File:Henry Gerard Sturt Silvy.jpg

| caption = Henry Sturt, 1860 photograph

| office = Member of Parliament
for Dorset

| term_start = 1856

| term_end = 1876

| office2 = Member of Parliament
for Dorchester

| term_start2 = 1847

| term_end2 = 1856

| birth_name = Henry Gerard Sturt

| birth_date = {{birth date|1825|5|16|df=y}}

| death_date = {{death date and age|1904|2|17|1825|5|16|df=y}}

| nationality = British

| spouse = {{unbulleted list|{{marriage|Augusta Bingham|1853}}|{{marriage|Evelyn Herietta Leigh|1892}}}}

| children = {{unbulleted list|Humphrey Sturt, 2nd Baron Alington|Winifred Hardinge, Baroness Hardinge of Penshurst|Mildred, Lady Charles Montagu}}

| father = Henry Sturt

| occupation = Politician, landowner

| party = Conservative Party

}}

Henry Gerard Sturt, 1st Baron Alington (16 May 1825 – 17 February 1904), was a British peer, Conservative Party politician, and notorious slum landlord in the East End of London.

Early life

He was the son of Henry Sturt, a landowner and politician from Dorset. His father purchased the Lordship of Motcombe, Dorset. His family retained the lordship into the 20th century.[https://www.ancestry.com/mediaui-viewer/collection/1030/tree/60044783/person/110188762786/media/cae36703-4e08-4a76-8aff-1ecaa854e438 The Lordship of Motcombe, Dorset]. pp 79-80. Accessed via ancestry.com 26 February 2024. He was educated at Eton College, and matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford in 1843.{{cite ODNB|id=36367|first=Wray|last=Vamplew|title=Sturt, Henry Gerard, first Baron Alington (1825–1904)}}{{alox2|title=Sturt, Henry Gerard}}

Political career

He was elected to Parliament in 1847 for Dorchester, and re-elected in 1852. In 1856, one of the Conservative MPs for the county of Dorset died. Sturt resigned his Dorchester seat and was elected to the vacant Dorset seat in a by-election. He was re-elected in 1857, 1859, 1865, 1868, and 1874. On 15 January 1876, he was created Baron Alington, of Crichel, and thereafter sat in the House of Lords as a Conservative peer.

Racing

File:Henry Gerard Sturt, Vnaity Fair, 1876-07-08.jpg) published in Vanity Fair in 1876]]

Sturt became a member of the Jockey Club in 1850. In partnership with Sir Frederick Johnstone, 8th Baronet, he was a successful racehorse owner, in particulatr with Common in 1891.

Marriages and children

Sturt was twice married. On 10 September 1853, he wed his first cousin, Lady Augusta Bingham, daughter of George Bingham, 3rd Earl of Lucan and Lady Anne Brudenell. They had three children:

Humphrey Sturt, 2nd Baron Alington (1859–1919), who married Lady Feodorowna Yorke (eldest daughter of Charles Yorke, 5th Earl of Hardwicke), in 1883, and died of wounds.
The Hon. Winifred Sturt (1868–1914), who married Charles Hardinge, 1st Baron Hardinge of Penshurst (second son of Charles Hardinge, 2nd Viscount Hardinge) in 1890.
The Hon. Mildred Sturt (1869–1942), who married three times: to Henry Cadogan, Viscount Chelsea (eldest son of George Cadogan, 5th Earl Cadogan), in 1892; after his death, to Admiral The Hon. Sir Hedworth Lambton (third son of George Lambton, 2nd Earl of Durham) in 1910; and after his death, to Lord Charles Montagu (second son of William Montagu, 7th Duke of Manchester) on 4 December 1930.

On 10 February 1892, Sturt wed Evelyn Henrietta Leigh.

East End landlord

Amongst other holdings, various branches of the family had owned land in London's East End for centuries and the first Lord Alington's son, second Lord Alington "was still in possession of all but a small portion of the combined Pitfield estates in Hoxton when these were submitted to public auction in 1917".{{cite journal |editor1-last=Bird |editor1-first=James |title=Historical introduction: Hoxton, to the west of Hoxton Street |journal=Survey of London |date=1922 |volume=8, Shoreditch |pages=72–88 |url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol8/pp72-88 |access-date=26 March 2021 |location=British History Online}} Frank Chapple who grew up on Pitfield Street, Hoxton, described it as a "slum village".{{cite book |last1=Gildart |first1=Keith |last2=Howell |first2=David |title=Dictionary of Labour Biography|volume=XV |date=31 January 2020 |publisher=Springer Nature |isbn=978-1-137-45746-2 |page=54 |url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=rKnNDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA54 |language=en}}

Lord Alington was one of the private landlords specifically named in relation to the terrible conditions in the East End in the London Poverty Maps compiled by Charles Booth in the 1890s. "Some private landlords were also criticised. Infant mortality in Shoreditch, one investigator recorded, was 22 per 1000, much higher than the London average. Quoting an anonymous interviewee, he drew attention to the 'disgraceful meanness' of Lord Alington, who owned the whole parish and 'drew £20,000 from the neighbourhood'."{{cite journal |last1=Light |first1=Alison |title=The general tone is purple |url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v42/n13/alison-light/the-general-tone-is-purple |journal=London Review of Books|date=2 July 2020 |volume=42 |issue=13 }}