Catalogue description William Wither Bramston Beach, 1826-1901

William Wither Bramston Beach was born on 25 December 1826, the eldest child and only son of William [Hicks] Beach and his wife Jane Henrietta [nee Browne]. Like many other members of the family, he went to Eton and later studied at Oxford. He inherited the Oakley Hall and Keevil estates on his father's death in 1856. After the death of his cousin Sir Michael Hicks Hicks Beach, 8th Baronet, in 1854, he was one of the trustees for Sir Michael Edward Hicks Beach, 9th Baronet [later first Earl St Aldwyn] until he came of age in 1858. He married Caroline Chichester Clevland, daughter of Colonel Augustus Clevland of Tapeley Park, Devon, in 1857, and they had three surviving children, Archibald William Hicks Beach, born in 1859, Alice Margaret Beach, born in 1865, and Ellice Michael Hicks Beach, born in 1875 [their first daughter, Agnes Caroline Beach, was born and died in May 1864]; both of the sons were given the additional forename of Hicks, William Wither Bramston Beach's father having dropped it as a surname in 1838. William Wither Bramston Beach was MP for North Hampshire, 1857-1885, and then for Andover, 1885-1901; he was Father of the House of Commons between 1899 and his death in 1901, and was succeeded in that role by his cousin Sir Michael Edward Hicks Beach. He was an active freemason, becoming Provincial Grand Master for Hampshire, and served as Deputy Lieutenant for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. William Wither Bramston Beach died on 3 August 1901, having been involved in a cab accident near the House of Commons