The Member for depravity
QUESTION Was William PoleTylney-LongWellesley, nephew of the Duke of Wellington, the worst MP of all time?
born on June 22, 1788, in London, William Wesley-Pole was the son of Irish peer William Wesley and his wife, Katherine-Elizabeth Forbes.
The family changed their surname to Wellesley in the 1790s.
A dissolute boy, he ran up large debts, and brief careers in the diplomatic service and the Army ended badly.
Deciding his salvation lay in marrying an heiress, he was accepted by Catherine Tylney-Long (born in 1789), whose name he incorporated into his own before they wed in 1812.
They lived at the magnificent Wanstead House where they racked up large debts hosting extravagant society parties and ordering lavish refurbishments.
William became Tory MP for St Ives from 1812 until 1818, then for Wiltshire. on August 8, 1822, he was appointed a Gentleman Usher to George IV, an appointment that rendered him immune to arrest for debt.
He began an affair with Helena Paterson bligh, the wife of Captain Thomas bligh of the Coldstream Guards, eventually abandoning Catherine. To pay their debts, Catherine was forced to demolish Wanstead House and sell off the assets. She started divorce proceedings, changing her will in favour of her children. She died aged 35 on September 12, 1825.
Catherine’s family and friends believed her death was hastened by the fear of losing her children and her husband’s harassment.
There is a strong possibility she was suffering from an inflammation of the bowels caused by a venereal disease, contracted from William.
He returned to Parliament in 1830, again as MP for St Ives, and as knight of the shire for Essex from 1831 to 1832. He was one of the Tories who broke with the first Wellington ministry and brought about its fall on november 15, 1830.
In the years following Catherine’s death, he sought control over his children (and their inheritance), who were in the care of Catherine’s two unmarried sisters, Dorothy and Emma. His uncle, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, hero of Waterloo, intervened on behalf of the children to prevent this.
Deprived of the custody of his children by the Court of Chancery, William was committed to Fleet prison in July 1831 for contempt of court.
After his release, he continued to lead a debauched life and lived for a time in brussels to avoid his creditors.
In his last years he lived on a small pension of ten shillings a week allowed by his cousin Arthur Wellesley, 2nd Duke of Wellington. From 1842 he was styled Viscount Wellesley, and succeeded his father as Earl of Mornington in 1845.
William died in his lodgings in London, on July 1, 1857, from heart disease. The obituary in the Morning Chronicle claimed he was: ‘A spendthrift, a profligate and a gambler in his youth, he became debauched in his manhood... redeemed by no single virtue, adorned by no single grace, his life gone out even without a flicker of repentance.’
J. B. Edwards, Cardiff. WHILE William Pole-Tylney-LongWellesley was bad, there are many candidates for the worst MP.
James brudenell, MP for Marlborough and 7th Earl of Cardigan, was a braggart and a bully who was serially unfaithful.
After buying various Army commissions, he was thrown out for bullying his subordinates in 1834, but was later readmitted using nepotistic channels.
In 1836, he was allowed command of the 11th Light Dragoons notwithstanding the view of his commander-in-chief, Lord Hill, that he was ‘constitutionally unfit for command’. In 1841, he was acquitted of killing one of his former officers, despite evidence to the contrary.
He then led the foolhardy charge of the Light brigade in 1854.
Modern candidates include the Liberals Cyril Smith MbE, MP for rochdale, and Sir Clement raphael Freud, MP for north East Cambridgeshire, both accused after their deaths of having been serial sexual abusers of children. Lou Baker, Salford.
QUESTION What are the rules governing the number of commercial breaks during a TV programme?
oFCoM rules are quite clear. Time devoted to TV advertising and teleshopping spots in any clock hour must not exceed 12 minutes.
only one break is permitted for a programme of fewer than 26 minutes, two if it is between 26 and 45 minutes, and three if between 46 and 65 minutes.
on public service channels, time devoted to TV advertising and teleshopping spots must not exceed an average of seven minutes per hour for every hour of transmission time across the broadcasting day and an average of eight minutes per hour between 6pm and 11pm.
Each break may not exceed three minutes and 50 seconds.
broadcasts of live Parliamentary proceedings may not include advertising breaks in programmes of a scheduled duration of 30 minutes or less. no ad breaks are allowed during broadcasts of formal royal ceremonies.
Mary Douglas, London SW4.
QUESTION Does Maxwell’s Demon, a physics problem, have a solution?
FUrTHEr to the earlier answer, James Clerk Maxwell’s great-grandson, Mark Maxwell, runs a winery in McLaren Vale, Australia, and has named a range of wines in honour of his great-grandfather: Little Demon verdelho, cabernet merlot and grenache rose.
I am visiting next week and will enjoy a sunny alfresco lunch with Mark on his terrace and will enjoy showing him the clipping.
Annabelle Tilley, Wollaston, Northants.
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