Henry Bruce Meux

English baronet, brewer, and politician

Sir Henry Bruce Meux, 3rd Baronet (pronounced "Mews") (21 November 1856 – 11 January 1900) was an English baronet, the son of Sir Henry Meux, 2nd Baronet (1817–1883), a brewer and politician.^[1]

Biography

Meux was born in London, educated at Eton College and, from 1875 on, at Trinity College, Cambridge.^[2] He became captain of the Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry Cavalry in 1883^[3] and was High Sheriff of Wiltshire in 1886.^[4] From 1898 on, he was major.^[5]

Meux was joint-manager, with Dudley Marjoribanks, of the Westminster brewer Meux's Brewery Company Ltd which they registered as a public company in 1888.^[6] His share of the company capital was worth £224,000 in 1894 (which would be over £22 million in 2022).^[7]

Meux had a considerable estate, including 9,200 acres (3,700 ha) on the Marlborough Downs in Wiltshire.^[8] He restored Vasterne Manor and, in 1889, Wooton Bassett Town Hall, both in Wiltshire.^[9] He was a lifetime member^[10] of the Wiltshire Archaeological Society, and was elected president of that society in 1893.^[11]

He commissioned James Whistler to paint three portraits of his wife, Valerie, Lady Meux.^[1] At Lady Meux's request, Henry purchased from the City of London the Temple Bar Gate, which they preserved at their Theobalds Park estate at Cheshunt in Hertfordshire.^[12]

Meux died childless in 1900, and his wife inherited his share of the brewery and his estate.^[13]

References

^ ^a ^b "Whistler Etchings :: Biography". etchings.arts.gla.ac.uk.
^ "Henry Bruce Meux". oxforddnb.com. Retrieved 8 November 2023.
^ Hart's Annual Army List, Militia List, and Imperial Yeomanry List. J. Murray. 1897.
^ "No. 25566". The London Gazette. 9 March 1886. p. 1137.
^ Hart's Annual Army List, Militia List, and Imperial Yeomanry List. J. Murray. 1901.
^ "Meux's Brewery Company Ltd". The National Archives. Retrieved 13 August 2020.
^ "Great Breweries and their Owners". The Cambrian. 28 December 1894. Retrieved 23 November 2023.
^ "The auction sale of the Meux Estate". Upper Kennet News. 22 December 2016. Retrieved 13 August 2020.
^ "Kelly's Directory of Wiltshire". specialcollections.le.ac.uk. 1889. p. 1057.
^ The Wiltshire archaeological and natural history magazine (PDF), Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, 1891, pp. V, retrieved 19 January 2024
^ "Annual General Meeting, July 1893". Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine. 27 (81): 196. 1894 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library .
^ Historic England. "Temple Bar (1393844)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 18 April 2012.
^ "Meux, Valerie Susie, Lady Meux". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2007. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/97881. Retrieved 13 August 2020. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)