Henry Seton-Karr

Who was Henry Seton-Karr?

Sir Henry Seton-Karr CMG was an English explorer, hunter and author and a Conservative politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1885 to 1906.

Seton-Karr was the son of Berkeley Seton-Karr, of the Indian Civil Service and his wife who was Eleanor, the daughter of Henry Usborne of Branches Park, Suffolk. He was educated at Harrow School and Oxford University and was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1879. Seton-Karr owned a cattle ranch in Wyoming, USA and was a director of Capitol Freehold Land and Investment Co. He was an explorer, big game hunter and writer.

Seton-Karr was elected as the Member of Parliament for St Helens in the 1885 general election and held the seat until his defeat at the 1906 general election. He did not stand again in St Helens, but at the January 1910 general election he stood unsuccessfully in Berwickshire.

He became a Deputy Lieutenant of Roxburghshire in 1896, and was made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in October 1902.

Seton-Karr died in Canada's greatest maritime disaster when the Empress of Ireland sank in the St. Lawrence River when he was returning to England from a hunting trip in British Columbia. He was interred at the Mount Hermon Cemetery, Sillery.