Frederick Townsend (MP for Stratford-on-Avon)

Edward James Townsend, a Church of England clergyman, whose parish was first Rawmarsh and then Ilmington near Stratford-on-Avon.

Frederick was educated at Harrow and went on to study at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he gained a BA in 1850 and then an MA in 1855.

[2] Townsend entered Parliament as MP for Stratford-on-Avon as a result of the 1886 general election in which the Conservative Marquess of Salisbury became Prime Minister, ousting the Liberal leader, William Gladstone.

He defeated the incumbent Liberal MP, Lord William Compton, with a majority of 489 votes.

[1] Townsend did not stand for re-election in the 1892 general election and so was succeeded by fellow Conservative Bertram Freeman-Mitford,[citation needed] grandfather of the Mitford sisters.