Colonel Sibthorp

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Charles de Laet Waldo Sibthorp (February 14, 1783–December 14, 1855), popularly known as Colonel Sibthorp, was a widely caricatured British Tory politician in the early 19th century. He sat as a Member of Parliament for Lincoln from 1826 to 1855 (with one brief break).

Sibthorp was born into a Lincoln gentry family, and was commissioned into the Scots Greys in 1803. He was promoted Lieutenant in 1806 and later transferred to the 4th Dragoon Guards, in which he reached the rank of Captain. He fought in the Napoleonic Wars, and continued in the service until 1822, when he succeeded to the family estates and also succeeded his brother as Lieutenant-Colonel of the Royal South Lincolnshire Militia. He married Maria Tottenham in 1812; they had four children.

During Sibthorp's three decades in Parliament, he became renowned, along with Sir Robert Inglis, as one of its most reactionary members. He stoutly opposed Catholic Emancipation, Jewish Emancipation, the repeal of the Corn Laws, the Reform Act of 1832, and the 1851 Great Exhibition. His political views, his bluntness in expressing them, and his eccentricities made him the target of outrage in The Economist and witticisms in Punch.

Sibthorp died at his home in London, and was succeeded as MP by his son, Gervaise.

[edit] References

• Lee, Sidney, ed. Dictionary of National Biography, vol. 18, "Sibthorp, Charles de Laet Waldo". London : Smith Elder, 1909.
• Dodds, John W. The Age of Paradox : A Biography of England, 1841-1851. Westport, Conn. : Greenwood, 1970 [1952].