Edward Birkbeck

Sir Edward Birkbeck, 1st Baronet KCVO DL (11 October 1838 – 2 September 1908) was a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom.

Sir Edward greatly improved the farm buildings, adding, among other things, a watertower in the Italian style that remains a local landmark, cottages and one of the two lodges facing towards Buxton.

In June 1902 he was on board German torpedo boat S. 42 when it sank off Cuxhaven, after it was accidentally run over by the steam ship SS Frisby.

Sir Edward had been granted passage in the torpedo boat from Heligoland to Cuxhaven, returning from the Dover to Heligoland yacht race, and survived unharmed, though the captain and several German crew members drowned.

A branch of the family still resides in the area, at Rippon Hall, a mansion in much the same style between Buxton and Reepham.

"the fisherman's friend"
Birkbeck as caricatured by Ape ( Carlo Pellegrini ) in Vanity Fair , August 1885
Escutcheon of the Birkbeck baronets of Horstead Hall