Francis Blundell (politician)

Francis Nicholas Blundell (16 October 1880 – 28 October 1936) was a British landowner and Conservative politician.

Born in Little Crosby, Lancashire, Blundell's father, Colonel Francis Nicholas Blundell, was a member of a prominent Roman Catholic land-owning family. His mother, Mary née Sweetman of Killiney, County Dublin was an author who wrote a number of novels about country life under the nom de plume of M. E. Francis.

Blundell was educated at Stonyhurst College, The Oratory School, Birmingham and Merton College, Oxford. He graduated from Oxford with a BA in 1904.

In 1909, on the death of his uncle, he inherited the Crosby Hall Estate. He thus became the owner of large landholdings, and involved himself in developing agriculture in the area. In 1912 he helped found the Lancashire Federation of Rural Friendly Societies to enable farm workers to take advantage of the National Insurance Act 1911. a member of the Lancashire Farmers Association, he served as its president in 1920, and was later to be a representative for the county on the National Farmers Union. He was appointed a justice of the peace and Deputy Lieutenant for Lancashire.

He held a commission in the Lancashire Hussars, serving with the regiment throughout First World War. In 1918 he married Theresa Ward, daughter of Wilfrid Ward, editor of the Dublin Review. The couple had two children.

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