Continuing his new series for Total MK, historian John Taylor shines a light on some of the colourful past characters from the area and their unique stories...
SIR CHARLES LOCOCK
Daughter of the Reverend Edmund Smyth, rector of Great Linford, on Tuesday, April 22nd 1788 Susanna Smyth married Henry Locock, a surgeon of Northampton, where on April 21st 1799 a son, Charles, was born.
Destined for a medical career he graduated in 1821 at Edinburgh where, having in 1826 married Amelia, the youngest daughter of John Lewis of Southampton Place, Euston Square, he was elected a Fellow of the College of Physicians in 1836.
He practiced in London, and in 1840 was appointed First Physician Accoucheur (essentially a male midwife, or obstetrician) to Queen Victoria, and would assist at the birth of all of her children.
Indeed in recognition of this Royal service he was made a baronet in 1857 on April 14th, and on retiring that year from the active duties of his profession was elected President of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society.
In 1863 he became Honorary President of the Obstetrical Society, being the following year elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. As for other activities he was a magistrate and deputy lieutenant for Kent.
Then in 1864 the family moved from Tunbridge Wells to Binstead House on the Isle of Wight, where Charles and his five sons were bereaved in 1867 when Amelia died.
In political matters in July 1865 Sir Charles had contested the General Election as the Conservative candidate but was unsuccessful. Then from the beginning of the next decade his health began to decline, and having for the past 12 months been unable to receive friends, he died at Binstead on July 23rd 1875.
A few days earlier Queen Victoria had travelled especially to Binstead to personally inquire about him, but since he was unable to recognise her she became tearful as she turned to leave.
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It had been Sir Charles’ wish for his funeral to be private, with burial, as with his late wife, in Kensal Green Cemetery. There the funeral was held, with his body having been removed on the Tuesday to the family residence in Hertford Street, Park Lane. The mourning procession comprised a hearse and four, and three mourning coaches and pairs, and in attendance as the personal representative of the Queen was her groom in waiting, Lieutenant General Sir Frances Seymour.
Sir Charles’ will was proved on August 18th 1875 by two of his sons, Sir Charles Brodie Locock Bart., and the Reverend Alfred Henry Locock, with the personal estate amounting to £100,000.
As for the distribution, Sir Charles had directed that the various presents received from the Queen, the Emperor and Empress of the French, the Prince Imperial, the Crown Prince of Prussia, and the Duc de Nemours should be allocated to his eldest son Charles, ‘absolutely as his successor in the baronetcy.’
Yet seemingly that wouldn’t be the end of the family’s royal affairs.
However that intriguing story lies outside the realm of this piece, so readers might care to consult the chapter ‘The Locock Legend,’ in the biography of Princess Louise by Lucinda Hawkesley.
Pic: Wikiimedia Commons
