Ross Donnelly Mangles

Born on 10 September 1801, Ross Donnelly Mangles was the son of James Mangles of Guildford and his wife Mary née Hughes. He was baptised on 13 October 1801 at St John’s in Hackney.

Following his education at Eton College and at the East India College in Haileybury, he entered the Bengal Civil Service in 1819.

On 16 February 1830 at St Marylebone he married Harriet Newcome, daughter of George Newcome. Their marriage produced eleven children.

From 1841 to 1857 he was the Member of Parliament (Liberal) for Guildford in Surrey. From 1847 to 1857 he was also a director of the East India Company and from 1857 to 1858 the company’s chairman. From September 1858 to 1866 he was a member of the Council of India.

When the census was taken in 1861 he was at Woodbridge House, his residence at Stoke-near-Guildford in Surrey, with his wife, two sons and four daughters. The household also included ten servants. Ross Mangles gave ‘Banker & Member of the Council of India’ as his profession.

Ross Donnelly Mangles died, aged 75, on 16 August 1877 at 23 Montagu Street in Marylebone. Surprisingly, his estate was valued at only £100, presumably because he had disposed of all his assets before his death. His children all left sizeable estates, so the money had by no means vanished.

‘We have just lost a ruler of 150,000,000 people. Yet I dare say a good many of your readers scarcely know who Mr Ross Donnelly Mangles was. He was the son of Mr Jas. Mangles, who from 1831 to 1837 represented Guildford in Parliament. He himself was elected for that borough in 1841, […] and was re-elected in 1852 and 1857. Prior to this he had held several important posts in the Bengal Civil Service, and after his return to England was (from 1847 to 1850) a director of the East India Company. When the Act was passed which transferred the Government of India to the Crown he was appointed to the India Council, and resigned some two or three years ago.’ (Shields Daily Gazette, 21 August 1877).

Photographer unidentified.