Reginald Alexander


Reginald Gervase Alexander FLS was a British medical doctor and authority on tuberculosis. After his death, he was recognized as the 15th Baron Cobham.

Origins

Reginald Gervase Alexander was the son of Dr. William Alexander of Blackwall Lodge, Halifax, West Yorkshire, Yorkshire, Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London and Justice of the Peace for the West Riding of Yorkshire, and his wife Emily Kirby, daughter of Samuel Kirby of Grove House, Sheffield, West Riding of Yorkshire. He had an older brother, Arthur William Alexander, who died unmarried and without issue. His uncle Gervase Alexander married his aunt Eliza Kirby on 16 October 1838, while his aunt Ellen Alexander married John Clarke Prescott on 20 February 1839.

Life

In February 1857, he was admitted to Heath Grammar School, Halifax. In 1867, he was admitted to St John's College, Cambridge. He graduated from the University of Cambridge, with a Master of Arts degree and from the University of Edinburgh, as a Doctor of Medicine, and became a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London.
The Committee for Privileges and Conduct of the House of Lords declared on 22 July 1912 that he was one of the co-heirs of the titles of Baron Burgh and Baron Cobham, and on 11 May 1914 that he was one of the co-heirs of the title of Baron Strabolgi. He never had, however, the chance of succeeding in any of these titles, nominately to the Barony Cobham, since the attainder that had fallen on Henry Brooke, 11th Baron Cobham, in 1603, though finally removed in September 1916, was only lifted after his own death.

Marriage and issue

He married on 29 May 1879 Alicia Mary Greenwood, daughter of John Greenwood of Castle Hall, Mytholmroyd, Calderdale, West Yorkshire, and had four children:
  • Gervase Disney Alexander, 15th Baron Cobham
  • Hon. Mary Isabel Alexander, who married twice, firstly on 27 April 1916 to John Leslie Morton Shaw, son of John Edward Shaw, and secondly on 21 May 1927 John Bazley-White, son of John Bazley-White, without any issue from both marriages, and was granted the rank of a baron's daughter on 9 May 1917
  • Robert Disney Leith Alexander, 16th Baron Cobham
  • Hon. Muriel Helen Alexander, married on 4 March 1916 to John Edmund Burnett Thornely, son of Thomas Thornely, from Cambridge, and was granted the rank of a baron's daughter on 9 May 1917. Their two sons became the heirs in abeyance of their maternal uncle the 16th Baron:
  • * Gervase Michael Cobham Thornely, married on 5 April 1954 in Kensington, County of London to Jennifer Margary Scott, daughter of Sir Charles Hilary Scott and Beatrice Margery Garrad – daughter of Reverend Canon Robert Garrad and Florence Beatrice Hoyle ). They raised four children – two sons and two daughters.
  • * John Alexander Cobham Thornely, unmarried and without issue.