Charles Algernon Whitmore (24 September 1851[1] – 10 September 1908[2]) was a British barrister and Conservative Party politician. He sat in the House of Commons from 1886 to 1906, as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Chelsea.
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Early life
Whitmore was the son of the county court judge Charles Shaplabd Whitmore QC and his wife Elizabeth Katherine, a sister of Sir Henry Brownrigg, Bt.[1] He was educated at Eton and Balliol, and became a Fellow of All Souls in 1874, before being called to the bar in 1876 at the Inner Temple.[1]
Political career
At the 1885 general election, Whitmore unsuccessfully contested the parliamentary borough of Chelsea in London, where he lost by 175 votes (2%) to the sitting MP, the Liberal Sir Charles Dilke, Bt.[3]
However, in early 1886 Dilke was involved in a high-profile divorce case which grew into a high-profile sex scandal, and at the next general election, in July 1886, Whitmore defeated Dilke with a majority of 176 votes.[3] He served for a time as private secretary to the Home Secretary Henry Matthews,[1] who as a barrister had conducted the cross-examination of Dilke, destroying the latter's career.[4]
Whitmore served as the Second Church Estates Commissioner, and in 1895 he was elected by London County Council as an Alderman for the Moderate Party, serving until 1901.[1] He was re-elected as MP for Chelsea at three further elections, but at the 1906 general election he was defeated by the Liberal candidate Emslie Horniman.[3]