Edward Wingfield (civil servant)

Sir Edward Wingfield KCB (6 March 1834 – 5 March 1910), was a British barrister and civil servant who held the position of Permanent Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies from 1897 to 1900.[1][2]

Family and education

Born in Bath, Somerset, Wingfield was the fourth son of John Muxloe Wingfield JP DL (1790–1869) and Catherine Anne Harriett Lee (1798–1863), of Tickencote Hall, Rutland. He was educated at Winchester College and New College, Oxford.[1][2][3]

In 1872 he married Mary Georgina Sheringham (1849–1918), daughter of the Ven. John Sheringham, later Archdeacon of Gloucester.

Career and retirement

Wingfield entered Lincoln’s Inn in 1856 and was called to the bar in 1859. From 1865 to 1878 he was a reporter for the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting.[4]

After joining the Civil Service, Wingfield served as Assistant Under-Secretary of State at the Colonial Office from 1878 to 1897 and Permanent Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies from 1897 to 1900.[1][2]

Following his retirement, he moved to Mulbarton Hall in Norfolk, the residence of his aunt, Emma Dorinda Wingfield (1814–1906). On her death he inherited the Hall and commissioned the Norwich architect Edward Boardman to add a wing in 1907.[5]

He died at Mulbarton Hall on 5 March 1910 at the age of 75 and is buried with his wife in the churchyard of St Peter’s, Tickencote.

Honours

Wingfield was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in 1889 and a Knight of the Order (KCB) in 1899.[2][3]

References

1. Joseph Foster, Alumni Oxonienses: The Members of the University of Oxford, 1715-1886.
2. Dod’s Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage of Great Britain and Ireland (1905).
3. Arthur C. Fox-Davies, Armorial Families: A Directory of Gentlemen of Coat-armour (1905).
4. Joseph Foster, Men-at-the-bar: A Biographical Hand-list of the Members of the Various Inns of Court, Including Her Majesty's Judges, Etc. (1885).
5. Mulbarton Hall website. Retrieved 12 November 2020.