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Rev. Hon. Sidney Meade

at Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire

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Photographic portrait in the National Portrait Gallery, London

Sidney Meade (1839-1917) was Curate of Christ Church in Bradford on Avon from 1882

He was the third son of Richard Charles Francis Meade, third Earl of Clanwilliam and of Lady Elizabeth Herbert, daughter of the 11th Earl of Pembroke of Wilton House. Apart from his rank in the nobility, his father served as Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in the government of the Earl of Liverpool.

He studied at Exeter College, Oxford, matriculating in 1861 and became Rector of Wylye Parish, not far from the Herbert seat at Wilton in 1869. In 1882 he became Perpetual Curate of Christ Church in Bradford and lived at Frankleigh House, not far away. He was a Canon of Salisbury Cathedral and a Justice of the Peace for Wiltshire. He married Lucy Emma (died 1918), daughter of J.H. Jacob of Salisbury and they had three children: Elizabeth Cecilia (died 1950), Constance Selina (died 1908) and Francis Henry (1870-1953).

He kept a scrapbook between 1856 and 1914 into which he pasted items relating to life in Wylye and district and later in Bradford. This book found its way into the collection of the Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre in 2013, largely due to the work of Ivor Slocombe, one of Bradford on Avon Museum’s Trustees. See History Centre page (opens in a new tab).