Justinian Edwards-Heathcote

{{Short description|British army officer and politician (1843–1928)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

Captain Justinian Heathcote Edwards-Heathcote {{post-nominals|country=GBR|JP|DL|MP|size=100%}} (17 June 1843 – 21 January 1928) was a British Conservative politician and soldier. A member of the Staffordshire gentry, he was the maternal grandfather of the fascist leader Oswald Mosley.{{Cite book |last=Skidelsky |first=Robert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xv2pAwKeX10C |title=Oswald Mosley |date=1975 |publisher=Holt, Rinehart and Winston |isbn=978-0-03-086580-0 |pages=31}}

Heathcote was eldest son of Rev. Edward James Justinian Edwards and his wife, the former Elizabeth Anne Heathcote.{{cite book |last1=Walford |first1=Edward |url=https://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/edward-walford/the-county-families-of-the-united-kingdom-or-royal-manual-of-the-titled-and-un-fla/page-116-the-county-families-of-the-united-kingdom-or-royal-manual-of-the-titled-and-un-fla.shtml |title=The county families of the United Kingdom |date=1919 |publisher=R. Hardwicke |location=London}} His mother was the daughter and heiress of Richard Edensor Heathcote by his wife Lady Elizabeth Lindsay (daughter of the 6th Earl of Balcarres).Mosley, Charles, ed. (2003). Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knighthood (107 ed.). Burke's Peerage & Gentry. p. 954. {{ISBN|0-9711966-2-1}}. Born in Trentham, Staffordshire, where his father was the vicar, Heathcote was educated at Winchester College before receiving a commission in the 63rd (West Suffolk) Regiment of Foot. From 1875, he was a captain in the Staffordshire Yeomanry.

He was married to Eleanor Stone (1844–1927; daughter of Spencer Stone, Esq., of Callingwood Hall, near Burton upon Trent, who was painted by Val Prinsep), with whom he had three children.{{Cite book |last=Howard |first=Joseph |title=Visitation of England and Wales |publisher=Family History Library |year=1893 |location=London}} On 5 March 1870, he succeeded to his uncle's estate and thus assumed by royal licence the surname of Heathcote.{{Cite encyclopedia |last=Burke |first=Sir Bernard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2v8-AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA873 |encyclopedia=A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain |date=1921 |publisher=Burke Publishing Company |pages=873 |title=Edwards-Heathcote of Apedale Hall |via=Google Books}}

Heathcote stood unsuccessfully for the Conservative Party in North West Staffordshire at the 1885 general election, but won the seat in 1886.{{Cite web |title=Justinian Edwards-Heathcote |website=Members of Parliament after 1832 |url=https://membersafter1832.historyofparliamentonline.org/members/1540}} He retired in 1892 to his estate of Apedale Hall, near Newcastle under Lyme, Staffordshire.{{cite book |last1=Stenton |first1=Michael |last2=Lees |first2=Stephen |title=Who's Who of British Members of Parliament |volume=II |date=1978 |publisher=Harvester Press |location=Hassocks |isbn=0-391-00613-4 |page=108}}