Sir Christopher Sykes (1831 – 15 December 1898) was a British
Conservative PartyThe Conservative and Unionist Party, more commonly known as the Conservatives, the Conservative Party, or Tory Party is a conservative political party in the United Kingdom...
Member of ParliamentA Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a parliament. In many countries the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a unique title, such as senate, and thus also have unique titles for its members, such as senators. Members of...
(MP) and friend of
Edward VIIEdward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death on 6 May 1910...
as
Prince of WalesPrince of Wales is a title traditionally granted to the Heir Apparent to the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland...
.
Christopher was the second son of
Sir Tatton Sykes, 4th BaronetThe Sykes family of Sledmere own Sledmere House.Their papers are at the University of HullSee also the Sykes Churches Trail.The family has included the following notables:...
. His father was a popular horse breeder who bred bloodstock; however, he was an authoritarian father who bullied his children. At the earliest opportunity young Christopher began mixing with London's great and good. Fashionable, and somewhat snobbish, he became a
connoisseurA connoisseur is a person who has a great deal of knowledge about the fine arts, or an expert judge in matters of taste.Modern connoisseurship must be seen along with museums, art galleries and "the cult of originality"...
of books, china and furniture, before being elected in 1865, a Conservative MP for
BeverleyBeverley has been the name of a parliamentary constituency in the East Riding of Yorkshire for three separate periods. From medieval times until 1869, it was a parliamentary borough, consisting solely of the market town of Beverley, which returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons...
, then from 1868 for the
East Riding of YorkshireEast Riding of Yorkshire was a parliamentary constituency in the East Riding of Yorkshire. It returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom....
.
Sir Christopher Sykes (1831 – 15 December 1898) was a British
Conservative PartyThe Conservative and Unionist Party, more commonly known as the Conservatives, the Conservative Party, or Tory Party is a conservative political party in the United Kingdom...
Member of ParliamentA Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a parliament. In many countries the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a unique title, such as senate, and thus also have unique titles for its members, such as senators. Members of...
(MP) and friend of
Edward VIIEdward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death on 6 May 1910...
as
Prince of WalesPrince of Wales is a title traditionally granted to the Heir Apparent to the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland...
.
Christopher was the second son of
Sir Tatton Sykes, 4th BaronetThe Sykes family of Sledmere own Sledmere House.Their papers are at the University of HullSee also the Sykes Churches Trail.The family has included the following notables:...
. His father was a popular horse breeder who bred bloodstock; however, he was an authoritarian father who bullied his children. At the earliest opportunity young Christopher began mixing with London's great and good. Fashionable, and somewhat snobbish, he became a
connoisseurA connoisseur is a person who has a great deal of knowledge about the fine arts, or an expert judge in matters of taste.Modern connoisseurship must be seen along with museums, art galleries and "the cult of originality"...
of books, china and furniture, before being elected in 1865, a Conservative MP for
BeverleyBeverley has been the name of a parliamentary constituency in the East Riding of Yorkshire for three separate periods. From medieval times until 1869, it was a parliamentary borough, consisting solely of the market town of Beverley, which returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons...
, then from 1868 for the
East Riding of YorkshireEast Riding of Yorkshire was a parliamentary constituency in the East Riding of Yorkshire. It returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom....
. He held this seat until 1885, when it was abolished, and was then elected for
BuckroseBuckrose was a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was a county constituency comprising the northern part of the East Riding of Yorkshire, represented by one Member of Parliament, and was created for the 1885 general election.It was redefined in...
, one of the constituencies into which his previous constituency had been divided, which he represented until 1892. Between 1868 and 1892, he made only six speeches, and did not speak on any particular issue except in favour of a bill for the
preservation of seabirdsThe Sea Birds Preservation Act 1869 was an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom. It was the first act to protect wild birds in that country.-History:...
, earning him the nickname
Gull's Friend.
Sykes became a close friend of Edward VII as
Prince of WalesPrince of Wales is a title traditionally granted to the Heir Apparent to the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland...
. The Prince was entertained in great splendour at Brantingham Thorpe, Sykes' country house in Yorkshire, during the Doncaster Races, and at his London home in Berkeley Square. The Prince exploited his friend and subjected him to humiliations, for example, on one occasion, poured a
decanterA decanter is a vessel that is used to hold the decantation of a liquid which may contain sediment.Decanters are normally used as serving vessels for wine. Decanters vary in shape and design. They are usually made of...
of brandy over his head.
However, Sykes's lavish entertainment of the
Marlborough House Set soon put a strain on his finances. Nearly bankrupted in 1890, Sykes was forced to sell both Brantingham Thorpe and his London home. At a general election two years later, he lost his parliamentary seat. Despite this, the Prince of Wales never forgot his devoted friend, and after Sykes' death in 1898, he installed a tablet to his memory at
Westminster AbbeyThe Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, which is almost always referred to popularly and informally as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in Westminster, London, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster...
.