Irish landowner and politician
Sir Richard George Augustus Levinge, 7th Baronet (1 November 1811 – 28 September 1884)[1] was an Irish landowner and politician from Knockdrin Castle, County Westmeath. He sat in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom from 1857 to 1865.
Life
His mother was a sister of the 2nd Baron Rancliffe, who died without issue in November 1850. Sir Richard inherited his uncle's entailed property, valued at between £1,000 and £2,000 per annum.[2]
In 1846 he was commissioned as Lieutenant Colonel of the Westmeath Militia.[3]
He was Sheriff of Westmeath in 1851–2,[4][5]
and in 1853 was appointed as a Deputy Lieutenant of the county.[6]
At the 1852 general election, he contested the Westmeath constituency as a Conservative, without success.
Five years later, at the 1857 election,[7]
he was returned unopposed for Westmeath as an Independent Opposition candidate.[8]
That party collapsed in 1859, he was re-elected at the 1859 general election,
[9]
as a Liberal.[8]
He did not contest the 1865 election.[8]
He was asked to stand again at the 1868 general election, but refused. He said that although he was a Liberal on all other points, he was a staunch Protestant, and opposed the Liberal policy of disestablishing the Church of Ireland.[10]
He died in Brussels on Sunday 28 September 1884, aged 73. He was succeeded in the baronetcy by his brother Vere Henry Levinge, an officer in the Madras Civil Service.[11]
Family
Richard was brother to Commodore Reginald Thomas John Levinge of the Royal Navy.[12]
Works
- Echoes from the Backwoods; or, Sketches of Transatlantic Life (London, 1846, 2 vols.)
- Cromwell Doolan; or, Life in the Army (London, 1849, 2 vols.) (Internet Archive)
- A Day With the Brookside Harriers at Brighton (London, 1858) (Internet Archive)
- Historical Records of the Forty-third Regiment, Monmouthshire Light Infantry, with a roll of the Officers and their services (Internet Archive)
References
External links