Edmund Boulnois

Edmund Boulnois
Boulnois in 1895.
Member of Parliament
for Marylebone East
In office
1889–1906
Preceded byLord Charles Beresford
Succeeded byLord Robert Cecil

Edmund Boulnois (17 June 1838 – 7 May 1911) was a British businessman and Conservative Party politician.[1][2][3][4]

Edmund was the son of William Boulnois of St John's Wood, the proprietor of the Baker Street Bazaar, Marylebone, London . He was educated at King Edward's School, Bury St. Edmunds and St John's College, Cambridge. He graduated with a BA degree in 1862, going on to gain an MA in 1868.[3][5] In 1863 he married Catherine Bennett of Great Marlow, Buckinghamshire.[6]

He succeeded his father as owner of the Bazaar and was also chairman of the West Middlesex Waterworks Company, a director of the London Life Association and of the Westminster Electric Supply Corporation.[2][3]

Boulnois was elected to the Marylebone Board of Guardians, of which he became the chairman.[7] In 1880 he was appointed a justice of the peace for Middlesex.[8] A member of the Conservative Party, at the 1886 general election he acted as election agent for Frederick Seager Hunt, member of parliament for Marylebone West.[9]

The Local Government Act 1888 created a new London County Council, with the first elections held in January 1889. Boulnois was chosen by the Marylebone Constitutional Union to contest the electoral division of Marylebone West.[10] He was elected as a member of the Conservative-backed Moderate Party, which formed the opposition group on the council.[2]

In July 1889 the sitting Conservative member of parliament for Marylebone East, Lord Charles Beresford, resigned his seat on becoming captain of HMS Undaunted.[11] Boulnois was chosen by the party to contest the resulting byelection. He held the seat with a majority of 493 votes, defeating the Liberal Party candidate, Granville George Leveson-Gower.[6] Boulnois held the seat until the 1906 general election, when he retired from parliament.[2][4][5]

When the Metropolitan Borough of St Marylebone was created in 1900, Boulnois was chosen as the borough's first mayor.[12] He served two consecutive terms as mayor.[2]

He visited Egypt in early 1901,[13] and again in late 1902 for the opening of the Aswan Dam.[14]

Boulnois maintained two residences: a town house in London's Portman Square and "Scotland", Farnham Royal, Buckinghamshire.[2][4][5] He died at his Buckinghamshire home in May 1911, aged 72.[2]

References

  1. ^ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "M" (part 1)
  2. ^ a b c d e f g "Obituary: Mr Edmund Boulnois". The Times. 8 May 1911. p. 11.
  3. ^ a b c Plarr, Victor G (1899). Men and Women of the Time. A Dictionary of Contemporaries (15 ed.). London: Routledge. pp. 116–117.
  4. ^ a b c "BOULNOIS, Edmund". Who Was Who. Oxford University Press. December 2007. Retrieved 26 March 2012.
  5. ^ a b c "Boulnois, Edmund (BLNS857E)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  6. ^ a b "Election Intelligence. Marylebone (East)". The Times. 20 July 1889. p. 7.
  7. ^ "Municipal Government of London". The Times. 14 February 1884. p. 10.
  8. ^ "Middlesex Sessions". The Times. 23 March 1880. p. 10.
  9. ^ "The General Election". The Times. 2 July 1886. p. 6.
  10. ^ "London County Council". The Times. 20 November 1888. p. 10.
  11. ^ "Election Intelligence". The Times. 12 July 1889. p. 9.
  12. ^ "The London Borough Councils. Election Of Mayors And Aldermen". The Times. 10 November 1900. p. 14.
  13. ^ "Court Circular". The Times. No. 36344. London. 5 January 1901. p. 4.
  14. ^ "Court Circular". The Times. No. 36929. London. 19 November 1902. p. 10.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Marylebone East
1889 – 1906 		Succeeded by