Christopher Sykes (MP)

Christopher Sykes (1831 – 15 December 1898) was an English Conservative politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1865 to 1892. He was a friend of Edward VII as Prince of Wales.

Sykes was the second son of Sir Tatton Sykes, 4th Baronet and his wife Mary Ann Foulis, daughter of Sir William Foulis, 7th Baronet. His father was a popular horse breeder who bred bloodstock; however, he was an authoritarian father who bullied his children. Sykes was educated at Rugby School and Trinity College, Cambridge. He began mixing with London's great and good and became a connoisseur of books, china and furniture. He was a Deputy Lieutenant and J.P. for the East Riding of Yorkshire.

At the 1865 general election Sykes was elected Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Beverley. At the 1868 general election he was elected MP for the East Riding of Yorkshire. He held this seat until 1885, when it was divided under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, and was then elected for Buckrose, one of the constituencies into which his previous constituency had been divided. He held the seat until 1892. Between 1868 and 1892, he made only six speeches, and did not speak on any particular issue except in favour of a bill for the preservation of seabirds, earning him the nickname Gull's Friend. He was considered to be the basis for the character "Mr Brauncepath" in Lothair the novel by Benjamin Disraeli. He was honoured with the Order of St. Lazarus of Belgium in 1879.

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