John Brocklehurst, 1st Baron Ranksborough

Major-General John Henry Brocklehurst, 1st Baron Ranksborough CB, CVO (13 May 1852–28 February 1921), was a British soldier, courtier and Liberal politician.

Ranksborough was the son of Henry Brocklehurst, of Foden Bank, Macclesfield, and the grandson of John Brocklehurst, for many years Member of Parliament for Macclesfield. His mother was Anne, daughter of 'Honest' John Fielden, Member of Parliament for Oldham. He was educated at Rugby and Trinity College, Cambridge, and was commissioned into the Royal Horse Guards in 1874. Ranksborough served in the Anglo-Egyptian War in 1882 including the Battle of Kassasin, in the Sudan campaign of 1884 to 1885 and in the Second Boer War, achieving the rank of Major-General. In South Africa he commanded the 2nd Cavalry Brigade of the Natal Field Force and was in Ladysmith throughout the siege. He retired from the army in 1908.He was also an Equerry to Queen Victoria from 1899 to 1901 and to Queen Alexandra from 1901 to 1910 and an Extra Equerry to Alexandra from 1910 to 1921 and served as Lord-Lieutenant of Rutland between 1906 and 1921.

In 1914 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Ranksborough, of Ranksborough in the County of Rutland. The title derived from his seat of Ranksborough Hall at Langham, Rutland, which he constructed in 1893 and which was often visited by members of the Royal family. Ranksborough took his seat on the Liberal benches in the House of Lords and served under H. H. Asquith and later David Lloyd George as a Lord-in-Waiting (government whip in the House of Lords) from 1915 to 1921. He was made a MVO in 1897, a CB in 1900 and a CVO in 1903.

Lord Ranksborough married Louisa Alice, daughter of the Hon. Laurence Parsons, in 1878. The marriage was childless. He died in February 1921, aged 68, when the barony became extinct. Lady Ranksborough died in 1937.

References

* [http://www.angeltowns.com/town/peerage/ Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page]
* [http://www.thepeerage.com/ The Peerage - Family History]
* [http://www.ranksboroughhall.com/ Ranksborough Hall]