Esmé Cecil Wingfield-Stratford (20 September 1882 – 20 February 1971) was an English historian, writer, mind-trainer, outdoorsman, patriot and ruralist.
Wingfield-Stratford was born in 1882, the elder son of Brigadier-General Cecil Wingfield-Stratford (a descendant of the ancient Stratford Family) [1] and his wife, Rosalind Isabel, daughter of the Revd Hon. Edward Vesey Bligh and Lady Isabel Bligh. Unhappy at Eton College (1893–1900), it was at King's College, Cambridge where he really developed, matriculating in 1900. This was followed by a research studentship at the London School of Economics. His work at the LSE on what became the first volume of his History of British Patriotism (1913) led to his election in 1907 to a fellowship at King's College, Cambridge, which he retained until 1913. In the same year he was awarded the degree of DScEcon by the University of London. After war service in India, Wingfield-Stratford sought no further academic advancement, instead settling down (thanks to an independent income) to a very productive life as historian and author, dividing his time between his rural home at Berkhamsted and London, where he could follow his many interests in the theatre, music and the arts. He also developed a taste for foreign travel. He married Barbara Elizabeth Errington on 30 December 1915 (daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel H. L. Errington and the Hon. Mrs Errington), and on 9 November 1916 had a daughter, Roshnara Barbara Wingfield-Stratford.
Wingfield-Stratford's first substantial work was The History of English Patriotism (2 vols., 1913), a theme to which he several times returned. The most lasting of his books remains The History of British Civilization (2 vols., 1928) which stands comparison with the better-known one-volume histories of England by G. M. Trevelyan and Keith Feiling. Trevelyan (thanked in the preface along with Eileen Power) was one of a number of professional historians, which also included R. H. Tawney and John and Barbara Hammond, who were his neighbours in the country and provided companions for long walks during which historical issues provided the staple of conversation. Whether writing of the seventeenth or the nineteenth centuries or the Middle Ages, Wingfield-Stratford treated figures of the past as though he had known them individually. His particular approach to history treated the real-world, physical evidence of landscape and buildings as no less significant than archives and literature. When he published his last book, Beyond Empire, in 1964 he could point to about forty volumes bearing his name, including—besides histories—polemical works, fiction, and poetry. Routledge was his chief publisher. [2]
"he was all of a piece, his physical build which was wonderfully large and expansive, his high ambitions and boisterous enthusiasms which were on the same gargantuan scale, even his fierce prejudices which lay scattered like rolled-up hedgehogs along the paths of his conversation." - Peter Quennell, letter to The Times, 27 Feb 1971 [3]
An especially passionate country walker, outdoorsman and amateur cricketer, his unconventional dress and lilting upper-class voice made him something of an oddity. Though he embraced innovation and modernism in the arts, his great love was for the rural England and London of his youth, forever destroyed by the first world war. The political and social consequences of progress and technology were realities that made him uneasy, and he was a man of tender nostalgia for his own Merry England. In spite of the "aggressiveness of temper and the somewhat rhetorical extravagance of mind" mentioned in his obituary from The Times, he was loved and respected by all who knew him, as was his larger-than-life, eccentric personality. [4]
Wingfield-Stratford died of heart failure on 20 February 1971 at his home in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire at the age of 89. He was survived by his wife and their daughter, Roshnara Barbara Wingfield-Stratford.
John Pym was a politician and administrator from London, who played a major role in establishing what would become the modern English Parliamentary system. One of the Five Members whose attempted arrest in January 1642 was a major step in sparking the First English Civil War, his use of procedure to out manoeuvre opponents was unusual for the period. Though this meant he was respected by contemporaries rather than admired, in 1895 historian Goldwin Smith described him as "the greatest member of Parliament that ever lived".
Sir Peter Courtney Quennell was an English biographer, literary historian, editor, essayist, poet, and critic. He wrote extensively on social history. In his Times obituary he was described as "the last genuine example of the English man of letters". Anthony Powell called him "The Last of the Mandarins".
Earl of Darnley is a hereditary title that has been created three times, twice in the Peerage of Scotland and once in the Peerage of Ireland.
Ivo Francis Walter Bligh, 8th Earl of Darnley, styled The Honourable Ivo Bligh until 1900, lord of the manor of Cobham, Kent, was a British nobleman, parliamentarian and cricketer.
Esmé Stewart, 1st Duke of Lennox, 1st Earl of Lennox, 6th Seigneur d'Aubigny of the Château d'Aubigny at Aubigny-sur-Nère in the ancient province of Berry, France, was a Catholic French nobleman of Scottish ancestry who on his move to Scotland at the age of 37 became a favourite of the 13-year-old King James VI of Scotland. Esmé Stewart was the first cousin of James' father, Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley. Despite his conversion to Calvinism he was never trusted by the Scots and returned to France where he ended his days. Sir James Melville described him as "of nature upright, just and gentle". He was the first to popularise the firstname Esmé in the British Isles.
Sir Roy Colin Strong, is an English art historian, museum curator, writer, broadcaster and landscape designer. He has served as director of both the National Portrait Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Strong was knighted in 1982.
Wingfield may refer to:
Esmé or Esmée is an English first name, from the past participle of the Old French verb esmer, "to esteem", thus signifying "esteemed". Another theory is that esmer is an alternative spelling of today's aimer, "to love", thus the name is aimé, meaning "beloved", equivalent to the modern feminine first name "Amy". Originally a masculine name, Esme had become a feminine name by the mid-twentieth century.
Cobham Hall is an English country house in the county of Kent, England. The grade I listed building is one of the largest and most important houses in Kent, re-built as an Elizabethan prodigy house by William Brooke, 10th Baron Cobham (1527–1597). The central block was rebuilt 1672–82 by Charles Stewart, 3rd Duke of Richmond, 6th Duke of Lennox (1639–1672).
William Nevill, 4th Earl of Abergavenny, styled Hon. William Nevill until 1845, was a British peer and clergyman. The fourth son of Henry Nevill, 2nd Earl of Abergavenny, he was ordained in 1816 and occupied two of the family livings until 1844. He succeeded his brother as Earl of Abergavenny the following year.
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William Wingfield KC, MP, was an attorney, judge, and Member of Parliament in 19th century England.
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Brigadier-General Cecil Vernon Wingfield-Stratford CB, CMG was a British Army officer in the Royal Engineers and an English international footballer who played as a forward.
Major Richard John Wrottesley, 5th Baron Wrottesley, was a British peer and army officer.
The House of Stratford is a British aristocratic family, originating in Stratford-on-Avon between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries. The family has produced multiple titles, including Earl of Aldborough, Viscount Amiens, Baron Baltinglass, Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe and the Dugdale Baronets. The Viscount Powerscourt and Baron Wrottesley both claim descent from this House. Historic seats have included Farmcote Manor and Stratford Park in Gloucester, Merevale Hall in Warwickshire, Baltinglass Castle, Belan and Aldborough House in Ireland, and Stratford House in London, amongst many others. The house was at its most powerful in the fourteenth, sixteenth, and eighteenth centuries.
Stratford is a surname of English origin.
William Brownlow PC (I) of Lurgan, County Armagh was an Anglo-Irish politician.
(John) Cecil Hall was Archdeacon of Man from 19 September 1839 until his death.