George Cubitt, 1st Baron Ashcombe

The 1st Baron Ashcombe
George Cubitt
Spouse(s) Laura Joyce
Father Thomas Cubitt
Mother Mary Anne Warner
Born (1828-06-04)4 June 1828
Died 26 February 1917(1917-02-26) (aged 88)
Occupation Politician

George Cubitt, 1st Baron Ashcombe PC (4 June 1828 26 February 1917) was a British politician and peer, the son of Thomas Cubitt, the leading London builder and property developer of his day.

Education and career

Cubitt was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated with first a BA and later took his honorary MA.[1] He served as Conservative Party Member of Parliament for West Surrey from 1860 to 1885, and then for Epsom until 1892, when elevated to the Lords as Baron Ashcombe of Dorking, Surrey and of Bodiam Castle, Sussex, having been invested as a Privy Counsellor in 1880. He also served as Honorary Colonel of the 5th Battalion, Royal West Surrey Regiment, and Deputy Lieutenant of the counties of both Surrey and Middlesex.

Denbies, a large estate in Dorking, was part of the inheritance from his father; Cubitt lived in the mansion built by his father there until 1905.[2] Cubitt purchased his estate in Bodiam, East Sussex, from local farmer Thomas Levett, descendant of an old Sussex family and owner of Court Lodge Farm, for £1,039 on 4 August 1862.

While an MP for West Surrey, Cubitt and his wife Lady Laura were one of the founders and benefactors of St Catherine's School in Bramley, Surrey in 1885. One of the schoolhouses was named in his honour after his death. His wife's gift to the school was a Sanatorium, which cared for sick pupils. A stained glassed window in the school chapel, dedicated to St Cecilia, was created by Cubitt in remembrance of his wife after she died in 1904. The patron of the school is Cubitt's great-great granddaughter Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.[3][4]

Family

Cubitt married Laura Joyce, daughter of Rev. James Joyce, Vicar of Dorking, on 14 June 1853 and with her had 9 children; 3 sons, though only the third, Henry, survived beyond infancy, and 6 daughters, one of whom died in infancy:

He is the maternal great-great grandfather of Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.

Death and burial

He died on 26 February 1917[5] and was buried in the churchyard of St Barnabas Church, Ranmore Common, Surrey.[2]

George Cubitt funerary monument, St Barnabas Church, Ranmore Common, Surrey

References

  1. "Cubitt, George (CBT847G)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  2. 1 2 Stevens, Brent (23 October 2014), "Country seat of pleasure park king", Dorking Advertiser
  3. "HRH The Duchess of Cornwall to be the Patron of St Catherine’s School, Bramley". gsa.uk.com. Retrieved 17 March 2015.
  4. "The Duchess of Cornwall visits St Catherine's School". essentialsurrey.co.uk. Retrieved 17 March 2015.
  5. "Death of Lord Ashcombe", The Scotsman, 28 February 1917, p. 5

External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Henry Drummond
John Ivatt Briscoe
Member of Parliament for West Surrey
18601885
With: John Ivatt Briscoe, to 1870
Lee Steere, 18701880
William St John Fremantle Brodrick, 18801885
Constituency abolished
New constituency Member of Parliament for Epsom
18851892
Succeeded by
Sir Thomas Townsend Bucknill
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation Baron Ashcombe
18921917
Succeeded by
Henry Cubitt
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