Hubert Duncombe

Colonel the Honourable Hubert Ernest Valentine Duncombe, DSO (14 February 1862 – 21 October 1918) was a British soldier and politician who served as the Conservative MP for Egremont from 1895 to 1900.

Duncombe was a younger son of William Duncombe, a Conservative politician later created Earl of Feversham, and his wife Mabel Violet (née Graham). He was educated at Harrow School, the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and Magdalene College, Cambridge.^[1] Following Cambridge, he was admitted to bar at the Inner Temple.^[2] He married music hall performer Nellie Leamar in 1883.^[3][4]

In 1893 he was selected as the prospective Conservative candidate for Egremont;^[5] he had previously been suggested as a possible candidate for York.^[6] He was elected in the 1895 general election, with a majority of 131.^[7] He did not seek re-election at the 1900 general election.^[8][9]

Duncombe was an officer of the Volunteer Force, originally as a captain with the 5th VB Devonshire Regiment from 1891,^[10] and later with the 2nd VB Yorkshire Regiment. He volunteered for active service in the Second Boer War in February 1900,^[11] and was commissioned a captain in the 14th battalion Imperial Yeomanry, leaving Southampton for South Africa in early April 1900 on the SS Carisbrooke Castle.^[12] He served as the adjutant of the battalion, commanded by his fellow MP, Arthur Montagu Brookfield, and was promoted to major on 15 September 1900. He was later promoted to lieutenant-colonel and awarded the Distinguished Service Order.^[2]

In 1904, he was declared bankrupt, with debts of around £4,400.^[13] In 1913, he was implicated in a fraud by Edmund Eaton, who had promoted an oil company as though it were endorsed by a Royal Commission; Duncombe was a director of the company, but resigned his directorship immediately and the charges against him were dismissed.^[14]