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Rowland Burdon (1857-1944)


Honorary Colonel of 5th DLI


Rowland Burdon was born in English Bicknor (Gloucestershire) in June, 1857. Son of Reverend John Burdon and his wife Elizabeth, he was educated in Repton School, Derbyshire and then attended Oxford University.

Rowland was Lord of the Manor of Castle Eden and Little Eden. He married Mary Ann Dell Slade, from Somerset, in 1887. The couple lived in Castle Eden and had four children.

From 1878, when he started his service as a volunteer in Castle Eden and joined the 1st Volunteer Battalion of the Durham Light Infantry, he was gradually promoted to higher ranks until he became Honorary Colonel in 1899. He resigned in 1904 but was restored as Honorary Colonel of the 5th Battalion of the Durham Light Infantry in 1911. After resigning again in 1922 he retained his rank with permission to wear the prescribed uniform.

He was awarded the Volunteer Decoration in 1898.

Apart from his military service, and after being Deputy Lieutenant of County Durham, High Sheriff and Justice of the Peace, he became a politician in the Conservative Party. In 1910, he was selected by the South East Durham Conservative Association to represent the county in the General Election of December, that year. Burdon accepted the nomination as a duty in a time of crisis, saying: “a man who shirked his duty was as much a traitor to his country as the man who betrayed it in a military sense”. He was not successful and he did not win the seat left by the Liberal Unionist Frederick Lambton after being defeated by the Liberal Party candidate, Evan Hayward, in January of that year.

Some years later, in 1918, he was elected at the General Election as Member of the Parliament, this time for the Sedgefield division of County Durham. Standing as a Coalition Unionist (a supporter of the coalition government led by David Lloyd George), he won the newly created seat in a three-way contest, with a majority of 826 votes over the second-placed candidate, John Herriots from the Labour Party. He did not contest the next general election so his days in the House of Commons ended in 1922.

Rowland Burdon died at Castle Eden the 1 August of 1944. After his death, the Castle Eden Vase, an Anglo-Saxon glass beaker that was found in the grounds of the Castle, was donated to the British Museum in his memory.

Newcastle Journal article about the Castle Eden Vase:
http://www.thejournal.co.uk/news/north-east-news/unearthing-origins-castle-eden-beaker-4442820

British Museum online catalogue entry for the Castle Eden Vase:
http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=94004&partId=1&searchText=castle+eden&page=1

Civil Parish: Castle Eden

Birth date: 19-Jun-1857

Death date: 01-Aug-1944

Armed force/civilian: Army

Residence: Castle Eden, County Durham

Education: Repton School (Derbyshire)
University of Oxford

Employment: Deputy lieutenant of County Durham (1900)
Justice of the Peace for County Durham
High Sheriff of Durham (1907)
Member of Parliament for the Sedgefield division (1918-1922)

Family: Father: John Burdon
Mother: Elizabeth Anne Burdon (nee Hale)
Siblings: Mary Ann, Robert, Elizabeth, Isabelle Alice, Willian, Elizabeth Anne, James, John George
Wife: Mary Ann Dell Burdon (nee Slade)
Offspring: Frances Mary, Joan, Rowland, Leticia

Military service:

2nd Lieutenant 16th (Castle Eden) Reserve Volunteer Company. 1st Volunteer Battalion Durham Light Infantry, 15 January 1878
Captain 10 October 1878
Major 18 May 1881
Honorary Lieutenant Colonel 9 February 1898
Lieutenant Colonel Commander 15 February 1899
Honorary Colonel 10 May 1899 (resigned 14 February 1904)
Honorary Colonel 5th Battalion Durham Light Infantry 29 September 1911 (resigned 3 March 1922)
Colonel and County Commandant Durham Volunteer Regiment October 1916 to 4 April 1917

Medal(s): Volunteer Decoration, 1898
Commander, Order British Empire (CBE)

Gender: Male

Contributed by Durham at War Volunteer

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