Thomas Bedford Bolitho (5 January 1835 –22 May 1915) was a British banker and industrialist. He was a Liberal Unionist Member of Parliament for St Ives in Cornwall from 1887 to 1900. [1]
Born in Penzance,Bolitho was the third son,and the only one to survive to adulthood,of Edward and Mary Bolitho (née Stephens). [2] [3] He was educated at Harrow School. [3]
In 1882,Bolitho bought at auction,the Greenway and Galmpton estates,near Dartmouth for £42,500 plus approximately £3,000 for timber and fixtures. [4] He also bought the tenements of Catchall,Kerris and Rospletha to add to the Hendra and Trevelloe estates he already owned. [5]
He was appointed High Sheriff of Cornwall in 1884. [6] Following the elevation to the peerage of the St Ives MP,Sir John St Aubyn,Bolitho became MP at a by-election in 1887. [7] He was re-elected in 1892 and 1895. He was unopposed on all three occasions. [8]
Bolitho was a director of Barclays Bank [9] and Bolitho,Williams,Foster,Coode,Grylls &Co. He was President of the Institute of Bankers from 1893 to 1895. [10] He was also a director of the Great Western Railway [11] and owner of the Consolidated Tin Smelting Company.
He married,at the age of 58,Frances Jane Carus-Wilson in Truro Cathedral on 9 December 1893 – The Cornishman devoted a whole page to a report of the ceremonies. [3] They had a daughter,Mary (1894–1977). He died,aged 80,on 22 May 1915 in Penzance. [12] His estate was valued at £550,038 gross. [9]
There is a portrait by Camille Silvy in the National Portrait Gallery. [13]
His cousin,Thomas Robins Bolitho,(1840-1925),was an English banker,who served as High Sheriff of Cornwall in 1890.
Bolitho continued his father's work in the garden at the family home of Trewidden,two miles west of Penzance. In particular,he filled the old opencast mine with tree ferns ( Dicksonia antarctica ) newly imported from Australia. This is now known as the Tree Fern Dell,which has been described as the best stand of tree ferns in the northern hemisphere. Following the death of her husband in 1955,Bolitho's daughter,Mary Williams,returned to Trewidden and took over the garden. Alverne Bolitho (b. 1961),a cousin of Mary Williams,inherited the property when she died and has developed it into a popular tourist attraction. [14]
Penzance is a town,civil parish and port in the Penwith district of Cornwall,England,United Kingdom. It is the most westerly major town in Cornwall and is about 64 miles (103 km) west-southwest of Plymouth and 255 miles (410 km) west-southwest of London. Situated in the shelter of Mount's Bay,the town faces south-east onto the English Channel,is bordered to the west by the fishing port of Newlyn,to the north by the civil parish of Madron and to the east by the civil parish of Ludgvan. The civil parish includes the town of Newlyn and the villages of Mousehole,Paul,Gulval,and Heamoor. Granted various royal charters from 1512 onwards and incorporated on 9 May 1614,it has a population of 21,200.
Morrab Gardens are a municipal garden covering 1.2 ha to the south of Penzance town centre,Cornwall. It is known for its Mediterranean and sub-tropical plants;and for housing the Morrab Library in the grounds.
Madron is a civil parish and village in west Cornwall,England,United Kingdom. Madron is named after Saint Madern's Church. Its annual Trafalgar Service commemorating the death of Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson was started on 27 October 1946,following a local tradition that his death was first announced on British soil in the Union Hotel,Penzance.
Penzance railway station serves the town of Penzance in west Cornwall,England. It is the terminus of the Cornish Main Line and the southernmost railway station in Great Britain,situated at milepost 326.5 miles (525.5 km) from London Paddington. The station is owned by Network Rail and managed by Great Western Railway who also operate train services there,together with CrossCountry.
Gulval is a village in Cornwall,England,United Kingdom. Although historically a parish in its own right,Gulval was incorporated into the parishes of Ludgvan,Madron and Penzance in 1934,and is now considered to be a suburb of Penzance. Gulval still maintains its status as an ecclesiastical parish and parts of the village church date back to the 12th-century. Together with Heamoor,Gulval still retains its status as an electoral ward. The ward population at the 2011 census was 4,185.
Chyandour is a small settlement within the town of Penzance in west Cornwall,United Kingdom. It is on the north-east edge of the town straddling the A30 trunk road. The Chyandour Brook rises near Carfury and flows into Mount's Bay at Chyandour. Before 1934 Chyandour was in the parish of Madron and was the site of a large tin smelting works.
Carbis Bay railway station is on the St Ives Bay Line in Cornwall,England,United Kingdom and serves the village and beach of Carbis Bay,a community that only adopted this name after the arrival of the railway in 1877. Carbis Viaduct is situated on the St Ives (west) side of the station.
Kerris is a settlement in west Cornwall,England,United Kingdom. It is three miles (5 km) south-west of Penzance in the civil parish of Paul. Kerris means "fort-place" in the Cornish language.
The Morrab Library is a subscription library in Penzance,Cornwall in England.
The Royal Cornwall Agricultural Show,usually called the Royal Cornwall Show,is an agricultural show organised by the Royal Cornwall Agricultural Association,which takes place at the beginning of June each year,at Wadebridge in north Cornwall,England,United Kingdom. The showground is on the south side of the A39 main road and between the hamlets of St Breock and Whitecross. Members of the Royal family often attend at the Show,including Prince Charles who is a supporter of the farming community. Princess Alexandra attended the 2009 show. The show lasts for three days and attracts approximately 120,000 visitors annually.
William Copeland Borlase was a British antiquarian and Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1880 until 1887 when he was ruined by bankruptcy and scandal.
The Williams family of Caerhays,Burncoose and Scorrier were owners of mines and smelting works for several generations during the Cornish Industrial Revolution. A branch of the family settled in Port Hope,Ontario.
Bolitho is a village in west Cornwall,and a Cornish surname. The Bolitho Family own large estates in west Cornwall,England,United Kingdom.
The Royal Geological Society of Cornwall is a geological society originally based in Penzance,Cornwall in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1814 to promote the study of the geology of Cornwall,and is the second oldest geological society in the world,after the Geological Society of London which was founded in 1807.
Sir Arthur Pendarves Vivian was a British industrialist,mine-owner and Liberal politician from the Vivian family,who worked in South Wales and Cornwall,and sat in the House of Commons from 1868 to 1885.
Colonel Sir Edward Thomas Bolitho is a former British Army officer,who has served as Lord Lieutenant of Cornwall since 2011.
Sir Edward Hoblyn Warren Bolitho was a Cornish landowner and politician. He was Chairman of Cornwall County Council from 1941 to 1952 and Lord Lieutenant of Cornwall from 1936 to 1962,for some years serving in both roles simultaneously.
Sir Edward Hain,was an English shipping magnate and politician from Cornwall,England. He represented St Ives as a Liberal Unionist from 1900 to 1904,and as a Liberal from 1904 to 1906. His shipping company,Hain Line,was sold to the recently merged Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company and British-India Steam Navigation Company after his death.
Madron Well and Madron Well Chapel is a scheduled Ancient Monument in the civil parish of Madron,Cornwall,UK.
Thomas Robins Bolitho (1840–1925) was a Cornish banker and landowner who served as High Sheriff of Cornwall in 1890.