[1st Bart.]. English politician, born at Brimington Hall, near Chesterfield, on the 25th of August 1866. He was educated at Rugby, and later entered the Sherwood Foresters. In 1900 he was elected Liberal member for the Mansfield division of Nottinghamshire, where, as a wealthy colliery-owner, he exercised considerable influence. He became known as a highly independent but energetic member of the House of Commons, and was created a baronet in 1911. He died at Newstead Abbey, Mansfield, on the 5th of August 1916.
His sister, Violet Rosa Markham, born at Brimington Hall on the 3rd of October 1872, became well known as a traveller, making long journeys in South Africa and Siberia. In connection with the anti-suffrage movement she made a reputation as a speaker. She was a member of the Central Committee on Women’s Employment (1914), and in 1917 deputy director of the women’s section of the National Service Department. The same year she became a Companion of Honour, and in 1918 unsuccessfully contested the Mansfield division of Nottinghamshire as a Liberal. In 1919 she became a member of the Industrial Court, and in 1920 was appointed a J.P. She married in 1915 Maj. James Carruthers, A.A.G. to the British army of the Rhine. She died in 1959. Her published works include South Africa Past and Present (1900); The New Era in South Africa (1904); The South African Scene (1913) and A Woman’s Watch on the Rhine (1921).
