Sir Henry Bellingham, 4th Baronet

Sir Alan Henry Bellingham, 4th Baronet, (23 August 1846 – 9 June 1921) was an Anglo-Irish Conservative Member of Parliament. He was Justice of the Peace, High Sheriff of Louth and Lord Lieutenant of Louth. He was Senator of the Royal University of Ireland and Private Chamberlain to popes Pius IX, Leo XIII and Pius X. He was the father of the diplomat Sir Edward Bellingham, 5th Bt. and the uncle of Sir Evelyn Wrench, editor of The Spectator.

Background

Born at Dunany House, Castlebellingham, County Louth, he was the eldest son of Sir Alan Bellingham (1800-1889), 3rd Bt., and his wife Elizabeth, only daughter of Henry Clarke, of West Skirbeck House, Lincolnshire.

He was educated at Harrow School and Exeter College, Oxford, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1869 and a Master of Arts three years later. He succeeded his father as baronet in 1889. In 1900, he inherited the Castlebellingham estate from his uncle, Sydney Robert Bellingham. In 1909, he received a Honorary Doctorate of Law from the Royal University of Ireland and became one of its senators.

Career

In 1875, he was called to the bar by Lincoln's Inn. Bellingham served in the British Army and captain in the 6th Battalion, Royal Irish Rifles. He entered the British House of Commons in 1880, representing County Louth as Member of Parliament (MP) until 1885. He was High Sheriff of Louth in 1897, Justice of the Peace for this county and, having been previously a Deputy Lieutenant was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Louth in 1911, an office he held until his death in 1921. Bellingham was Commissioner of National Education for Ireland and was successively Private Chamberlain to the three popes, Pius IX, Leo XIII and Pius X. He was also High Sheriff of Louth for 1897.

Family

On 13 January 1874, he married firstly Lady Constance Julia Eleanor Georgiana Noel, daughter of Charles Noel, 2nd Earl of Gainsborough at St Thomas of Canterbury Church, Exton. She died in 1891, and Bellingham married secondly Hon. Lelgarde Harry Florence Clifton, younger daughter of Augustus Wykeham Clifton and his wife Bertha Clifton, 22nd Baroness Grey de Ruthyn at the Church of Our Lady, St John's Wood on 11 June 1895. Bellingham had two sons and two daughters by his first wife. He died aged 74 and was succeeded in the baronetcy by his older son Edward. His second daughter Augusta married John Crichton-Stuart, 4th Marquess of Bute. He was the grandfather of Sir Evelyn Wrench, editor of The Spectator