Ralph Bernal Osborne

Caricature by ATn published in Vanity Fair in 1870.

Ralph Bernal Osborne of Newton Anner, County Tipperary, MP (26 March 1808 – 4 January 1882), born and baptised with the name of Ralph Bernal, Jr., was a British Liberal politician.

Life

He was the eldest son of London Sephardic Spanish Jewish Parliamentarian Ralph Bernal, himself an MP, who died in 1854, and wife Ann Elizabeth (née White). The younger Bernal entered the military in 1831, as an Ensign of the 71st (Highland) Regiment of Foot. He later served with the 7th (Royal Fusiliers) Regiment of Foot, and finally left the army in 1844 with the rank of Captain.

He had already been elected to Parliament in 1841 as a member for Chipping Wycombe, in the Liberal interest, and later sat for Middlesex (1847–57), Dover (1857–59), Liskeard (1859–65), Nottingham (1866–68), and Waterford City (1870–74).

In the Railway Times of 21 June 1845 he is the first person listed in the provisional committee for the Leicester, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Burton-upon-Trent and Stafford Junction Railway: Ralph R. Bernal Osborne, MP for Wycombe, address: Albemarle Street. The railway was never built.

Beside being a Parliamentarian, he was also Secretary of the Admiralty.

When he died, his house at Newtown Anner, Clonmel, County Tipperary, Munster, Ireland, was surrounded by more than 13,000 acres (53 km2) of land.

Family

On 20 August 1844 he married Catherine Isabella Osborne (30 June 1819 – 20 June 1880), from an Anglo-Irish landed family, the daughter of Sir Thomas Osborne, 9th Baronet and Catherine Rebecca Smith, and on the same day he took her name and his name was legally changed by Royal Licence, becoming Ralph Bernal Osborne.[1]

His two daughters shared his estate. His older daughter, Edith Bernal Osborne, married at Slough, Ireland, on 7 February 1874 Sir Henry Arthur Blake.[2] His younger daughter, Grace Bernal Osborne (d. London, 18 November 1926), married at Newtown Anner, County Tipperary, on 3 January 1874 William Amelius Aubrey de Vere Beauclerk, 10th Duke of St Albans.[3] His grandson was Osborne Beauclerk, 12th Duke of St Albans.

Sources

References

  1. http://thepeerage.com/p1202.htm#i12016
  2. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~battle/celeb/wilde.htm
  3. Derek Beales, 'Osborne, Ralph Bernal (1808?–1882)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, May 2007 accessed 28 March 2009
Political offices
Preceded by
Augustus Stafford
First Secretary of the Admiralty
1853–1858
Succeeded by
Henry Thomas Lowry-Corry
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
George Robert Smith
Sir George Dashwood, 5th Bt
Member of Parliament for Chipping Wycombe
18411847
With: Sir George Dashwood, 5th Bt
Succeeded by
Martin Tucker Smith
Sir George Dashwood, 5th Bt
Preceded by
Thomas Wood
Lord Robert Grosvenor
Member of Parliament for Middlesex
18471857
With: Lord Robert Grosvenor
Succeeded by
Robert Hanbury
Lord Robert Grosvenor
Preceded by
Edward Royd Rice
Viscount Chelsea
Member of Parliament for Dover
18571859
With: Sir William Russell, 2nd Bt
Succeeded by
Sir Henry John Leeke
William Nicol
Preceded by
Ralph Grey
Member of Parliament for Liskeard
18591865
Succeeded by
Sir Arthur Buller
Preceded by
Sir Robert Clifton
Samuel Morley
Member of Parliament for Nottingham
1866–1868
With: Viscount Amberley
Succeeded by
Sir Robert Clifton
Charles Wright
Preceded by
Sir Henry Barron, 1st Bt
James Delahunty
Member of Parliament for Waterford City
1870–1874
With: James Delahunty
Succeeded by
Richard Power
Purcell O'Gorman
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