Sir Thomas Lethbridge, 2nd Baronet

Sir Thomas Buckler Lethbridge, 2nd Baronet (1778–1849) of Sandhill Park in the parish of Bishops Lydeard and of Royal Crescent,[i] in Bath, [3] both in Somerset, was an English politician and soldier.

He was born in 1778, the son and heir of Sir John Lethbridge, 1st Baronet (d.1815) of Sandhill Park, whose title had been created in 1804 for his help in paying the Prince Regent's gambling debts.

[3][ii] Lethbridge's involvement with the South Wales iron industry, across the Bristol Channel from Somerset, began in 1825 when he invested in the Hunt brothers' Pentwyn ironworks, in Abersychan, near Pontypool.

[iii] Lethbridge played a major role in the Brendon Hills Iron Ore Company and the West Somerset Mineral Railway.

An obituary notes the death of Sir Thomas Buckler Lethbridge, describing him as for many years a prominent Member of the House of Commons on the Conservative side.

Sir Thomas Buckler Lethbridge, 2nd Baronet, 1839 portrait by Thomas Mogford , showing him wearing the uniform of Colonel Commandant of the West Somerset Yeomanry . [ 1 ] Originally displayed at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1839
Canting arms of Lethbridge: Argent, over water proper , a bridge of five arches embattled gules and over the centre arch a turret in chief an eagle displayed sable charged on the breast with a bezant [ 2 ]
Thomas Lethbridge as a child, with his sisters Dorothea and Frances Maria, 1785 portrait by Charles Gill , Tate Gallery [ 4 ]