Sir Edwin Dashwood, 7th Baronet

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sir Edwin Hare Dashwood, 7th Baronet (7 September 1825 – 8 May 1882) was a New Zealand sheepfarmer who subsequently inherited West Wycombe Park.

He was the son of Capt. Edwin Sandys Dashwood and Emily Hare. His father died of delirium tremens in Paris in 1835, and the younger Edwin was educated at a military school in Germany. He obtained an ensigncy in the 10th (the North Lincolnshire) Regiment of Foot, and went with them to India. There, he showed great gallantry at the Battle of Sobraon^[1], planting the regimental colors in the Sikh trench-line. He shortly after left for England and exchanged into an English regiment.

In 1848, Dashwood resigned his commission and emigrated to New Zealand, and bought a farm at Motueka and a sheep station near Blenheim on the Awatere River. In 1850, he and Captain E.M. Mitchell reconnoitered a route from Blenheim to Christchurch along the Waihopai River, which, however, proved unsuitable for sheep driving.^[2] Dashwood Pass, which he discovered during this expedition, now bears his name.

During his time in New Zealand, Edwin, like his father and uncle, became an alcoholic, perhaps in part because of the death of his beloved sister Amelia in 1847. In 1852, he visited England again, and married Roberta Henrietta Abercromby (d. 1901), daughter of Sir Robert Abercromby, 5th Baronet. They returned to New Zealand, where his sheep farming proved quite prosperous. The couple had two children:

Sir Edwin Dashwood, 8th Baronet (1854–1893)
Sir Robert Dashwood, 9th Baronet (1859–1908)

In 1859, due to the illness of his uncle Sir George Dashwood, 5th Baronet, he sold off his New Zealand property and returned with his family to West Wycombe. He inherited that estate on the death of his uncle in 1862, and a year later, succeeded his uncle Sir John Dashwood, 6th Baronet in the baronetcy. West Wycombe was to cause a great deal of trouble for Dashwood: Lady Elizabeth Dashwood, Sir George's widow, had been given life tenancy of the property and inherited most of his personal effects. Agricultural depression in the 1870s made the estates still less renumerative, and Sir Edwin found himself financially strapped for the remainder of his life. He died in 1882 and was succeeded by his son Edwin in the baronetcy.