Thomas Charles Pleydell Calley

Who was Thomas Charles Pleydell Calley?

Major-General Thomas Charles Pleydell Calley, CB, CBE, MVO, was a British military officer and Liberal Unionist politician.

Calley was the son of Henry Calley, JP, DL, of Burderop Park, Wiltshire, and was educated at Harrow, and at Christ Church, Oxford.

He joined the 1st Life Guards in 1876, and served in Egypt 1882, where he took part in the Battle of Tel el-Kebir. In 1886 he was appointed Captain, promoted to Major in 1894, Lieutenant-colonel in 1898, and a Brevet Colonel in November 1900 for service in the Second Boer War in South Africa 1899-1900. After the war he commanded the 1st Life Guards 1902-06, and King Edward VII appointed him a Member of the Royal Victorian Order in July 1901, and a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1905. He went on to become a Brigade Commander of the London Mounted Brigade 1908-12.

He was elected at the January 1910 general election as Member of Parliament for Cricklade, winning the seat from the sitting Liberal MP John Massie. However, at the general election in December 1910, he narrowly lost the seat to another Liberal candidate, and did not stand for Parliament again.

Calley married, in 1883, Emily Chappell, daughter of T. D.