Article in Journal of Liberal History, issue 128, Autumn 2025
I never cease to be amazed by the number of genuinely radical Liberal politicians there were in the nineteenth century who have little resonance today. One such was Cyril Flower, the first and last Lord Battersea. Peter Jordaan brings him to life, warts and all, and for that we must be grateful. The one problem with his biography is its length and the lack of skilful editing. Within its 668 pages of text - 200 of them before we get a mention of Battersea - plus a further l00 pages of appendices etc. No snippet of information on Battersea’s life appears to be omitted and a further supplementary volume is even promised encompassing Battersea’s friends.
Essentially, the basic details are straightforward: a radical lawyer, he married great wealth, Constance de Rothschild, and was thus able to indulge his love of art and his progress in politics. A Liberal MP for twelve years, first for Brecon and later for Luton, he became a junior minister and a whip before acquiring a peerage, allegedly as a consequence of his large donations to the party, taking the tile Lord Battersea. Amidst his politics, his wife’s circle of rich friends and his ease of socialising with high society, he mixed with gay society, not least with men of influence who were able to get teenage boys involved with apparent impunity. Jordaan names around thirty members of an upper class circle of gay men. In addition to aristocratic associates he was also friendly with Oscar Wilde, Edward Carpenter and the poet Walt Whitman. Said to have exceptional good looks and “an irresistible charm” he was able to continue this double life until 1902 when, with Battersea almost sixty years of age, he was arrested for homosexual offences. Jordaan states that influential members of society charged with such offences were given twenty-four hours notice of their impending arrest so that the individual could flee the country or even, in some cases, commit suicide. Battersea stayed put and with the benefit of intervention by upper class sympathisers, including the then Prime Minister, Arthur Balfour, and, it is said, the monarch, Edward VII, the charges were dropped. However, the two young victims were sentenced to ten years and five years imprisonment respectively.
As Cyril Flower his political career began when he joined the Liberal party in 1875, having been persuaded to do so by Lord Rosebery. He was adopted as the candidate for Brecon in 1878 and gained the seat at the 1880 general election. The constituency boundaries were re-drawn and he lost the seat in 1885. Later that year he fought and won the Luton seat which he held until created Lord Battersea in 1892, even though he had earlier had argued for abolition of the House of Lords. He rarely spoke in the House of Commons but addressed meetings in most by-elections around the country. In 1886 Gladstone appointed him as a Whip and Flower changed sides over Ireland in order to back Gladstone’s campaign for Home Rule. Jordaan states that his parliamentary career was “undistinguished” and that he was not take seriously as “he was thought to lack conviction.”
Although he left a considerable sum on his death, his unfortunate wife discovered that he also had massive debts which his wife had great difficulty in discharging, even with her considerable wealth. Through all his vicissitudes Constance stood by him and, after his death, she destroyed many papers. Peter Jordaan has done a remarkable amount of research for his biography of Lord Battersea and it is a good addition to Victorian political biographies, even if somewhat prolix.
A Secret Between Gentlemen: Lord Battersea’s hidden scandal and the lives it changed forever, by Peter Jordaan, pub. Alchemie Books, 2023
