Henry Sturt, 1st Baron Alington

The Right Honourable The Lord Alington
"Bunny". Caricature by "Spy" (Leslie Ward) published in Vanity Fair in 1876.
Member of Parliament for Dorset
In office 1856–1876
Member of Parliament for Dorchester
In office 1847–1856
Personal details
Born	Henry Gerard Sturt (1825-05-16)16 May 1825
Died	17 February 1904(1904-02-17) (aged 78)
Nationality	British
Political party	Conservative
Spouses	Augusta Bingham ​ (m. 1853)​ Evelyn Herietta Leigh ​ ​ (m. 1892)​
Children	Humphrey Sturt, 2nd Baron Alington Winifred Hardinge, Baroness Hardinge of Penshurst Mildred, Lady Charles Montagu
Parent	Henry Sturt (father)
Occupation	Politician, landowner

Henry Gerard Sturt, 1st Baron Alington (16 May 1825 – 17 February 1904), was a British peer, Conservative Party politician, and notorious slum landlord in the East End of London.

Early life

He was the son of Henry Sturt, a landowner and politician from Dorset. His father purchased the Lordship of Motcombe, Dorset. His family retained the lordship into the 20th century.[1] He matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford in 1843.[2]

Political career

He was elected to Parliament in 1847 for Dorchester, and re-elected in 1852. In 1856, one of the Conservative MPs for the county of Dorset died. Sturt resigned his Dorchester seat and was elected to the vacant Dorset seat in a by-election. He was re-elected in 1857, 1859, 1865, 1868, and 1874. On 15 January 1876, he was created Baron Alington, of Crichel, and thereafter sat in the House of Lords as a Conservative peer.

Marriages and children

Sturt was twice married. On 10 September 1853, he wed his first cousin, Lady Augusta Bingham, daughter of George Bingham, 3rd Earl of Lucan and Lady Anne Brudenell. They had three children:

• Humphrey Sturt, 2nd Baron Alington (1859–1919), who married Lady Feodorowna Yorke (eldest daughter of Charles Yorke, 5th Earl of Hardwicke), in 1883, and died of wounds.
• The Hon. Winifred Sturt (1868–1914), who married Charles Hardinge, 1st Baron Hardinge of Penshurst (second son of Charles Hardinge, 2nd Viscount Hardinge) in 1890.
• The Hon. Mildred Sturt (1869–1942), who married three times: to Henry Cadogan, Viscount Chelsea (eldest son of George Cadogan, 5th Earl Cadogan), in 1892; after his death, to Admiral The Hon. Sir Hedworth Lambton (third son of George Lambton, 2nd Earl of Durham) in 1910; and after his death, to Lord Charles Montagu (second son of William Montagu, 7th Duke of Manchester) on 4 December 1930.

On 10 February 1892, Sturt wed Evelyn Henrietta Leigh.

East End landlord

Amongst other holdings, various branches of the family had owned land in London's East End for centuries and the first Lord Alington's son, second Lord Alington "was still in possession of all but a small portion of the combined Pitfield estates in Hoxton when these were submitted to public auction in 1917".[3]

Lord Alington was one of the private landlords specifically named in relation to the terrible conditions in the East End in the London Poverty Maps compiled by Charles Booth in the 1890s. "Some private landlords were also criticised. Infant mortality in Shoreditch, one investigator recorded, was 22 per 1000, much higher than the London average. Quoting an anonymous interviewee, he drew attention to the 'disgraceful meanness' of Lord Alington, who owned the whole parish and 'drew £20,000 from the neighbourhood'."[4]

Notes

1. The Lordship of Motcombe, Dorset. pp 79-80. Accessed via ancestry.com 26 February 2024.
2. Foster, Joseph (1888–1892). "{{{title}}}" . Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1715–1886. Oxford: Parker and Co – via Wikisource.
3. Bird, James, ed. (1922). "Historical introduction: Hoxton, to the west of Hoxton Street". Survey of London. 8, Shoreditch. British History Online: 72–88. Retrieved 26 March 2021.
4. Light, Alison (2 July 2020). "The general tone is purple". London Review of Books. 42 (13).

External links

• Works by or about Henry Sturt, 1st Baron Alington at Wikisource
• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Henry Sturt

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Henry Ashley Sir James Graham, Bt	Member of Parliament for Dorchester 1847–1856 With: George Dawson-Damer 1847–1852 Richard Brinsley Sheridan from 1852	Succeeded by Richard Brinsley Sheridan Charles Napier Sturt
Preceded by John Floyer George Bankes Henry Ker Seymer	Member of Parliament for Dorset 1856–1876 With: Henry Ker Seymer to 1864 John Floyer to 1857 Henry Portman from 1857	Succeeded by John Floyer Henry Portman Edward Digby
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation	Baron Alington 1876–1904	Succeeded by Humphrey Sturt