Hon. Philip Wodehouse

Born: 1 October 1886

Died: 6 May 1919

Rank and Regiment: Lieutenant in the Censor’s Staff

Resting Place: St. Peter’s, Kimberley, United Kingdom

Memorial: St. Peter’s, Kimberley; Eton College War Memorial; Wymondham War Memorial, Wymondham and; Witton by Walsham War Memorial.

Philip Wodehouse was the second son of John Wodehouse, who became the 2nd Earl of Kimberley, and Isabel Geraldine (nee Stracey). He was born on 1 October 1886 at Witton, Norfolk.

Following family tradition, he was educated at Eton, and Trinity Hall, Cambridge.

His father succeeded to the earldom in 1902, the first Earl of Kimberley having left an estate of £253,513 12s. 6d. The Second Earl made a name for himself by speaking up for his workers on the County Council, of which he was a member until 1925, and in the House of Lords, and paying his workers more than the wage rate demanded by the National Union of Agricultural Workers, which naturally appears to have made him very popular though obviously putting him at a competitive disadvantage. The Press nicknamed him “the Labour Earl”; but as there were no other Labour members in the House of Lords at that time he retained the Liberal whip until January 1924 when the first Labour government was formed.

His family had been active in Liberal politics for many years, and his older brother Lord John served as the local Liberal MP from 1906 to 1910 (The Liberal tradition in the area persisted for a long time. As late as 1955, Central Norfolk elected a “Conservative and National Liberal” MP). It can have been no great surprise when in 1910 Philip Wodehouse sought election to Parliament. The Conservative MP for Andover had been returned unopposed in 1900 but after he was killed in a road accident in 1901 the Liberal candidate came within 223 votes of taking the seat at a by-election, and in the 1906 Liberal landslide the Liberal came even nearer to success, losing by only 79. The seat doubtless appeared a reasonably promising one when Philip contested it in January 1910, but there was a big swing to the Conservative, who retained the seat with a majority of over 2,000. When there was a second election in December of that year, Philip had evidently retired to lick his wounds, and the Conservative MP was returned unopposed.

All three of the Wodehouse brothers served in the Great War; John survived, only to be killed in an air raid in 1941. Philip served in the Censor's Staff, General List. He served in France and Flanders, but fell from a wall in Boulogne in June 1918, sustaining a severe injury to his back. After being in hospital for several months he was brought back to England, but he died at Kimberley House on 6 May 1919.

He is buried at Kimberley Church in the Wodehouse family vault by the North wall of the church. He is commemorated on the War Memorials at Eton College, Wymondham, and Witton by Walsham.

He left an estate of £816 17s 6d, rather less than his grandfather the First Earl had done.

Kimberley St. Peter, United Kingdom