Harry Legge-Bourke

Who was Harry Legge-Bourke?

Major Sir Edward Alexander Henry Legge-Bourke KBE was a British politician.

He served alongside Jock Colville as a Page of Honour from 1926. Educated at Eton College and Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, Legge-Bourke was commissioned into the Royal Horse Guards in 1934. He served there throughout World War II, 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.