Harry Legge-Bourke

Major Sir Edward Alexander Henry Legge-Bourke KBE (16 May 1914 – 21 May 1973) was a British politician.

He served alongside Jock Colville as a Page of Honour from 1926. Educated at Eton College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, Legge-Bourke was commissioned into the Royal Horse Guards in 1934. He served there throughout the Second World War, rising to the rank of major. In 1941, he was liaison officer, GHQ, British Forces in Greece and served with the 7th Armoured Division at El Alamein.

Legge-Bourke was elected member of Parliament for Isle of Ely in 1945 as a member of the Conservative Party. His gain from the Liberal James A. de Rothschild was one of the few Conservative gains of the election. Legge-Bourke was prominent as a chairman of the 1922 Committee of Conservative backbenchers. In 1960 he was invested as a KBE. As an East Anglian representative, he was particularly interested in land drainage and was vice-President of the Association of Drainage Authorities. A popular local MP, he did instruct Prime Minister Clement Attlee to "Change the bloody record" as he threw a coin at him — an incident which had him briefly debarred from the Commons.

Legge-Bourke died in 1973, aged 59, whilst still a Member of Parliament. The by-election to replace him was won by Liberal Clement Freud. Legge-Bourke and his wife were cremated and their ashes buried in Ely Cathedral.

Legge-Bourke inherited a fraction of the Lord Great Chamberlainship of England, succeeded by his son, William. His daughter-in-law (The Hon Mrs Legge-Bourke, Lord Lieutenant of Powys) was made a lady-in-waiting to Elizabeth II. His granddaughter, Tiggy Legge-Bourke (now Pettifer) was nanny to Princes William and Harry. Another granddaughter, Eleanor Legge-Bourke, is a television personality in France.

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Sir Harry Legge-Bourke

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by James de Rothschild	Member of Parliament for Isle of Ely 1945–1973	Succeeded by Clement Freud
Political offices
Preceded by Sir Arthur Vere Harvey	Chairman of the 1922 Committee 1970–1972	Succeeded by Sir Edward du Cann