Christopher Sykes (politician)

"the Gull's friend"
Sykes as caricatured by Ape (Carlo Pellegrini) in Vanity Fair, November 1874

Christopher Sykes (1831 – 15 December 1898) was an English Conservative politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1865 to 1892. He was a friend of Edward VII as Prince of Wales.

Sykes was the second son of Sir Tatton Sykes, 4th Baronet and his wife Mary Ann Foulis, daughter of Sir William Foulis, 7th Baronet.[1] His father was a popular horse breeder who bred bloodstock; however, he was an authoritarian father who bullied his children.[2] Sykes was educated at Rugby School and Trinity College, Cambridge.[3] He began mixing with London's great and good and became a connoisseur of books, china and furniture. He was a Deputy Lieutenant and J.P. for the East Riding of Yorkshire.[1]

At the 1865 general election Sykes was elected Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Beverley. At the 1868 general election he was elected MP for the East Riding of Yorkshire. He held this seat until 1885, when it was divided under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, and was then elected for Buckrose, one of the constituencies into which his previous constituency had been divided. He held the seat until 1892.[4] Between 1868 and 1892, he made only six speeches, and did not speak on any particular issue except in favour of a bill for the preservation of seabirds, earning him the nickname Gull's Friend. He was considered to be the basis for the character "Mr Brauncepath" in Lothair the novel by Benjamin Disraeli. He was honoured with the Order of St. Lazarus of Belgium in 1879.[3]

Sykes became a close friend of Edward VII as Prince of Wales. The Prince was entertained in great splendour at Brantingham Thorpe, Sykes' country house in Yorkshire, during the Doncaster Races, and at his London home in Berkeley Square. The Prince exploited his friend and subjected him to humiliations, for example, on one occasion, poured a decanter of brandy over his head.

However, Sykes's lavish entertainment of the Marlborough House Set soon put a strain on his finances. Nearly bankrupted in 1890, Sykes was forced to sell both Brantingham Thorpe and his London home. At a general election two years later, he lost his parliamentary seat. Despite this, the Prince of Wales never forgot his devoted friend, and after Sykes' death in 1898, he installed a tablet to his memory at Westminster Abbey.

References

  1. 1 2 Debretts House of Commons and the Judicial Bench 1886
  2. ↑ Dictionary of National Biography
  3. 1 2 "Sykes, Christopher (SKS848C)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  4. ↑ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "B" (part 6)
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Sir Henry Edwards and
James Robert Walker		 Member of Parliament for Beverley
1865 – 1868
With: Harry Edwards		 Succeeded by
Sir Henry Edwards and
Edmund Hegan Kennard
Preceded by
Lord Hotham and
Arthur Duncombe		 Member of Parliament for East Riding of Yorkshire
1868 – 1885
With: William Harrison-Broadley		 Constituency abolished
New constituency Member of Parliament for Buckrose
1885 – 1886 		Succeeded by
William Alexander McArthur
Preceded by
William Alexander McArthur		 Member of Parliament for Buckrose
1886 – 1892 		Succeeded by
Sir Angus Holden
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