Col. the Right Hon. Amelius Richard “Mark” Lockwood (né Wood) PC, GCVO, DL, JP

Coldstream Guards, 1^st Baron Lambourne, Lord Lieutenant of Essex, Born Aug 17^th 1847, died Dec 26^th 1928. Laid to rest St Mary and All Saints churchyard, Lambourne, Essex

Research and words by © Hilary Challis

TOM JONES: … not a man of commanding inches, he was respectably above middle height, but he looked the striking personality he was. The nose was aquiline and well-shaped, the moustache thick and curling; eyes bright and quizzical; the frame robust; the complexion that of the squire who rode to hounds; the mouth small and very firm. And all these physical features were set off by the dress you could imagine worn by Squire Western in “Tom Jones” (Henry Fielding); clothes that always proclaimed that Mark was an essential and unabashed country squire, whom no change of time or fortune or political conditions could make anything else.

PLAIN MARK: Better known in his lifetime as Mark Lockwood, his unusual first name is of Latin origin (Emiliano) meaning eager. He was the eldest son of Lt-Gen William Mark Wood (né Lockwood) and Amelia Jane, daughter of Sir Robert Williams, 9th Baronet (of Penrhyn, Caernarvon).  In 1828 Mark’s father had assumed the surname of Wood, as per the will of his maternal uncle Sir Mark Wood, 2^nd Baronet of Gatton, Surrey.

ZULU: By any name, Mark had seeming inexhaustible energy and interests during his life as a British soldier and politician. A pupil at Eton, he made lifelong friends there such as (Sir) William Anson, (Marquis of Lansdowne ), who became an outstanding constitutional lawyer and an active Liberal politician. Lord Rosebery was another of his boyhood friends. His favourite and chief companion was William Beresford, Lord William Leslie de la Poer Beresford, who afterwards received a Victoria Cross  for bravery during the 1879 Anglo-Zulu war.

COLDSTREAM GUARDS: Although prominent in sport, Mark learned little.  “My work at Eton,” he wrote afterwards, “ was of a very perfunctory character.” Baffled what to do with him, his father sent him first to the Continent to learn French, then into the Army.

Born in London, Mark was baptised in South Bersted (near Bognor Regis), Sussex, while his father was a Captain with the Coldstream Guards, the British Army’s oldest continuously serving regular regiment. Later he was Regimental Lieutenant Colonel of the Coldstream Guards from 1863 to 1866, the year Mark joined the Guards. Mark turned out to be a keen soldier, passing through Hythe School of Musketry ranked as best shot, serving at London and Windsor, briefly an Aide-de-Camp (ADC)  and retiring in 1883 as a Lt. Col. Ten years into his army career he married the beautiful Isabella Milbanke, a daughter of notable diplomat Sir John Ralph Milbanke-Huskisson, 8^th Baronet  (of Halnaby, Yorkshire).

M.P.: After the Army, Mark served as Epping’s MP for 25 years until 1917. During that time, he was appointed to the Privy Council: a formal body of advisers to the UK sovereign, comprising mainly senior politicians who are current or former members of the Houses of Commons or Lords. In 1905 he was appointed Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO), a dynastic order of knighthood to recognise distinguished personal service to the monarch, members of the royal family, viceroy or senior representative of the monarch.

UNCLE MARK: His obituary in the Daily Telegraph stated, “You could no more ignore his presence [in the Commons] than that of Gladstone or Disraeli in the days when they were the titanic lights that blazed over the whole House. He could not be in the House without being noticed.”

“He became one of those figures in the Commons who are popular with both political foes and friends. A hearty laugh, a sardonic smile now and then; an easy-going familiarity with everybody; the general impression he gave was good humour that nothing could disturb for long”.

His notoriety was partly due to a joke at his expense. Frank Lockwood MP, no relation but one of the wittiest members to ever sit at Westminster, at one point during the extraordinary  congestion when  members of a new Parliament take the oath, pointed out Mark as, “My Uncle Mark”. The joke stuck and Mark was fondly known to everyone at the Commons as, “Uncle Mark”.

1st BARONET and LORD LIEUTENANT: In 1917 Mark was raised to the peerage as 1^st Baron Lambourne and appointed HM King George V’s Deputy Lieutenant for Essex. He was Lord Lieutenant from 1919 until his death in 1928, the year before which he was appointed GCVO (Knight of the Royal Victorian Order).

FOND OF FLOWERS – FRIEND OF KINGS: Besides politics, Mark’s main interest were gardens and animals.  It was his passionate love of flowers that brought him the friendship of King Edward VII (who stayed at Bishops Hall for hunting), George V, and Queen Mary, particularly while he was President of the Royal Horticultural Society’.   He was well known for his interest in rare plants, both hardy and exotics, which were raised within his series of specialised glasshouses and within the grounds of his Lockwood family ancestral home at Bishops Hall.

Mark was President of the Essex Hunt and Essex Automobile clubs.  As well as Freemason’s Senior Grand Deacon of England in 1896, he was also Provincial Grand Master of the Essex Freemasons.  He was also on the management committee of the Royal Masonic Institution for Girls, in Hertfordshire, one of the country’s oldest schools for girls founded in 1788. For 30 years he was also Chair of the Governors of Chigwell School.

EXTINCT BARONETCY: After Isabella’s death in 1923, Mark lived as a widower for another five years. Sadly, they had no children.  Mark died from heart disease and bronchitis aged 81 years. His heir would have been his nephew, Richard Lockwood.  Richard though was killed, just months into World War One, during the First Battle of Aisne in September 1914. The Lambourne baronetcy therefore became extinct with the death of Mark, its 1^st baronet. 

After Mark’s death, the estate of1,615 acres was put up for sale in 1929 and the house demolished.  The estate was designed by Mark with exquisite flower beds, three lakes, mature trees, formal lawns and two houses which includes its gatehouse. From the gates a sweeping driveway winds through the parkland. There’s a verdant expanse of stunning greenery, cocooning the main house from view and creating a tranquil setting.  Two years ago, the local authority gave planning permission for this, newer Bishop’s Hall built in the 1950s, to be torn down and redeveloped.