Edward Cotton-Jodrell

Sir Edward Thomas Davenant Cotton-Jodrell KCB DL (29 June 1847 – 13 October 1917[1]), known until 1890 as Edward Thomas Davenant Cotton, was a British army officer and Conservative politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1885 to 1900.

Cotton-Jodrell in 1895.

Cotton-Jodrell was the son of Rt. Rev. George Edward Lynch Cotton and his wife Sophia Ann Tomkinson and baptised with the name of Edward Thomas Davenant Cotton. His father was a master at Rugby School and later Bishop of Calcutta. Cotton was educated at Rugby, Marlborough College and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. He joined the Royal Artillery and became captain.[2] Then with the Cheshire Royal Engineers (Railway Battalion) he attained the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.

Cotton was elected at the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wirral at the 1885 general election and held the seat until he stood down at the 1900 general election.[3] On 10 July 1890 his name was legally changed to Edward Thomas Davenant Cotton-Jodrell by Royal Licence.[4]

Cotton-Jodrell was J.P. for Cheshire, and was appointed Deputy Lieutenant of the county in 1901.[5] He was on the Headquarters Staff of the War Office from 1906 to 1912 and became Colonel in the Territorial Forces. He was invested as a Knight Commander, Order of the Bath (K.C.B.).[6] in the 1911 Coronation Honours.

Cotton-Jodrell had residences at Yeardsley and Reaseheath, Nantwich, Cheshire, and at Shallcross, Cheshire.[7] He died at the age of 70.

Cotton-Jodrell married Mary Rennell Coleridge, daughter of William Rennell Coleridge and Katherine Frances Barton, on 24 April 1878 and had two surviving daughters.[6]