Viscount Midleton

1903-1988

Few people living in Bourne realised that one of Britain's aristocrats had also made his home here. He was the 11th Viscount Midleton, a family title that had survived the centuries after being handed down through relatives rather than by the usual direct family line of father to son.

Trevor Lowther Brodrick of Frogmore Cottage, 105 North Road, Bourne, succeeded to the Viscountcy of Midleton and Barony of Brodrick in November 1979 after his third cousin, George St John Brodrick MC, a former captain in the Suffolk Yeomanry, died at the age of 91. The title of Viscount of Midleton derives from the peerage of Ireland and was created in 1717 with the name being adopted from a small coastal town in County Cork, while the title of the Baron of Brodrick, Peper Harow, is a peerage of Great Britain created in 1796 and named after a hamlet near Godalming in Surrey, where previous members of the family once lived.

Both were completely deaf but refused to allow the disability affect their lives, becoming experts at lip reading and during their marriage, shared a mutual love of cookery, gardening, photography, reading and watching television, as well as using their experiences to good effect. The result was that during their time in Bourne, they became well known for their work with people similarly afflicted, founding the Bourne branch of the National Deaf Children's Society in 1961. The couple also shared theatrical links in that the daughter of Lady Midleton's cousin was the film actress Charlotte Rampling and her husband's niece was the actress Susan Brodrick.

Lord Midleton was born in Hampshire on 7th March 1903, the son of William John Henry Brodrick OBE, grandson of the seventh viscount, and Blanche Sophia Emily Hawker. He was educated privately and moved to Bourne in 1940 and soon became well known in the town for his support of many local organisations, becoming vice-president of the Bourne and District branch of the Royal British Legion while his wife took an active interest in the Girl Guides. She was vice-president of the Lincolnshire South Girl Guides and a hut in the Peper Harow field behind their home in North Road was a regular meeting place for "Brownie Revels", summer camps and other guiding activities. Both were founder members of the Bourne group of the Lincolnshire and South Humberside Trust for Nature Conservation, now the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust.

Over the years, the Peper Harow meadow became a treasured county camp site but this arrangement came to an end with Lord Midleton's death when the land was sold for residential development and is now occupied by a housing estate known as Midleton Gardens.

He died in 1988 at the age of 85 and a memorial service was held at the Abbey Church on November 2nd when the vicar, the Rev John Warwick, paid tribute to the high regard and esteem in which Viscount Midleton had been held in the town, his long and full life, his kindness and generosity and his active support for local organisations, many of them represented at the church including the Girl Guides, the Civic Society, St John Ambulance Brigade and the Stamford and Spalding Conservative Association.

On his death, the title passed to his nephew Alan Henry Brodrick who became the 12th viscount. He was Keeper of Clocks at the National Clock Museum at Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, and an occasional guest expert on the popular BBC Television programme The Antiques Road Show. The Dowager Viscountess Midleton continued to live in North Road until April 1992 when she moved to the Cedars Residential Home in Church Walk, Bourne, where she died on 17th December 1995.

Debrett, the handbook of the titled and famous, describes the family coat of arms in its usual antiquated and obtuse language, thus:

The titled family line began with the successful legal career of the first viscount, Alan Brodrick, who was appointed Solicitor-General for Ireland in 1695. He became Attorney General in 1707, M P for Cork from 1692-1709 and for Midhurst in Surrey 1717-22 and subsequently held several other important positions in Ireland including Speaker in the House of Commons, Justice of the King's Bench (1709-10), Lord Chancellor (1714-28) and a Lord Justice (1716-17, 1719 and 1723-24).