Edgar Keatinge

Major Sir Edgar Mayne Keatinge CBE (3 February 1905 – 7 August 1998) was an English farmer, soldier and Conservative Party politician. He is best known for having served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bury St Edmunds from 1944 to 1945, after a high-profile by-election. He disliked the name Edgar and preferred to introduce himself as "Mike". An obituarist describes him as "a simple and loyal man who had, for a brief period, endured a significant role in national life; and discharged his duty with honour".

Keatinge was born in Bombay, India (now Mumbai), when his father worked for the Indian Civil Service. His grandfather Maurice Keatinge (1816–96), had been Principal Registrar Court of Probate, Ireland and great-grandfather, Rt. Hon. Richard Keatinge, Judge of the Prerogative Court of Ireland. (All no doubt connected to Maurice Keatinge). At the age of five he was sent to England to be educated, later boarding at Rugby, and then went to South Africa to study at the School of Agriculture in Natal. He worked for the South African Department of Education until 1929, when he returned to England.

His father Gerald Francis (1872–1965) had now retired and was running a modest family estate in Teffont Evias, inherited via Gerald's mother, Ellen-Flora Mayne, Mrs Keatinge (1828/29-1907), the third and youngest daughter of John Thomas Mayne, FRS, of Teffont (1792–1843). In 1929 or 1930 Edgar took an aeroplane from France, arriving home days before he was expected. He was initially annoyed to find a guest in his room. This was Katherine Burrell, whose father Reginald was prospering as a fruit farmer in Risby, Suffolk. Within a few days they were engaged, and they married in 1930. The honeymoon included a trip up the Rhine, during which Keatinge became convinced that another war with Germany was likely. During the next ten years he divided his time between the Territorial Army, local activism in the Conservative Party, and work in Risby on Reginald Burrell's farm. He was particularly adept at the business of military organisation and became an artillery officer in the Suffolk Yeomanry. In World War II Keatinge served in the Royal Artillery. He commanded a mountain battery of the West African Frontier Force, and became the first commander of the West African Artillery School. When, after serious illness, he returned to Suffolk in 1943, he was again attached to the Suffolk Yeomanry, eventually reaching the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.

...
Wikipedia