Mayo history: 3rd Earl of Lucan known as 'The Exterminator'

By Tom Gillespie

AFTER the Great Famine the population of Castlebar was virtually halved. The plight of the starving people was made all the worse because the 3rd Earl of Lucan, George Bingham (April 16, 1800, to November 10, 1888), known as ‘The Exterminator’, used the time of the Great Hunger to increase his lands with mass evictions.

He cleared villages such as Drumconlon and Aughadrina of hundreds of people to facilitate pasture, building sheds from the stone of their houses.

The streets of the town were left filthy and from the previous high of 6,373 in 1831 the population dropped by 2,820 to 3,553 by the end of the century.

Conditions were bad as there wasn’t enough food and disease spread. Families were split up due to emigration and any work was all but impossible to come by. Stories of people deliberately getting arrested to be fed in the gaol were reported in The Connaught Telegraph.

The workhouse opened in 1842 for a capacity of 600 people. They had to overcrowd and rent other premises such as Walshe’s Brewery to accommodate 1,952 people by 1850.

In the early 1840s the government spent twice as much on the maintenance of the jail than it did on the infirmary, both in Castlebar, leaving no doubt as to the whereabouts of their priorities.

Bingham 'The Exterminator’ has the the unwanted distinction of being one of three men, along with Captain Louis Nolan and Lord Raglan, responsible for the fateful order during the Battle of Balaclava in October 1854 that led to the Light Brigade commander, The Earl of Cardigan, leading the Charge of the Light Brigade.

Born the first son of Richard Bingham, 2nd Earl of Lucan, an Anglo-Irish peer, and Elizabeth Bingham (née Belasyse), Lord Bingham (as he was styled up until late June 1839) attended Westminister School but left formal education to be commissioned as an Ensign in the 6th Regiment of Foot on August 29, 1816. He transferred to the 11th Light Dragoon on December 24, 1818, Wikipedia records.

Lord Bingham became a lieutenant in the 8th Regiment of Foot on January 20, 1820, a captain in the 74th Regiment of Foot on May 16, 1822, and was promoted to major, unattached, on June 23, 1825.

He transferred to the 17th Lancers on December 1, 1825, and became commanding officer of the regiment with the rank of lieutenant colonel on November 9, 1826.

He lavished such expense on his officers' uniforms and horses that the officers became known as ‘Bingham's Dandies’. He was also elected as MP for County Mayo in 1826 and held that seat until 1830.

During the Russo-Turkish War, which began in 1828, he acted observer with the Imperial Russian Army.

Lord Bingham succeeded his father as 3rd Earl of Lucan in the Peerage of Ireland on June 30, 1839, and, having become an Irish Representative Peer in June 1840 and having been promoted to colonel on November 23, 1841, he became Lord Lieutenant of Mayo in 1845.

At the outbreak of the Crimean War, Lord Lucan applied for a post and was made commander of the Cavalry Division. His brother-in-law, the 7th Earl of Cardigan, was one of his subordinates, commanding the Light Brigade - an unfortunate choice as the two men heartily detested each other. Promoted to brevet lieutenant general on August 18, 1854, he was present at the Battle of Alma in September 1854 but, on the orders of the Army commander, Lord Raglan, he held his division in reserve.

At the Battle of Balaclava, Lucan received an order from Raglan and in turn ordered Cardigan to lead the Charge of the Light Brigade, resulting in heavy British casualties without significant gains.

As Lucan brought the Heavy Brigade forward in support, he was lightly wounded in the leg. Raglan blamed Lucan for the loss - “You have lost the light brigade” - and censured him in despatches.

Although Lucan complained against this censure, as the relationship between the army commander and the cavalry commander had clearly broken down, he was recalled to England, where he returned at the beginning of March 1855.

On his arrival, Lucan's demand for a court martial was declined and instead he defended himself with a speech to the House of Lords on March 19, 1855, blaming Raglan and his deceased aide-de-camp, Captain Nolan.

This tactic appears to have been successful as he was subsequently appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath on July 5, 1855, and Colonel of the 8th Light Dragoons, who had charged with the Light Brigade, on November 17, 1855.

A significant contribution was made by Lucan to Parliament when he produced a solution to the problem of admitting Jews to Parliament. Prior to this, distinguished Jews had declined to take the oath ‘on the true faith of a Christian’ and having not been sworn in as required by statute, were refused voting rights although having been elected an MP.

Lucan proposed, by way of a compromise, that each House could decide and modify its own oath. The House of Lords, who had long opposed the admission of Jews, agreed to this. A prominent Jew, Lionel Nathan Rothschild, was thus allowed to enter the Use of Commons and was sworn in on July 26, 1858.

Although Lucan never again saw active duty, he was promoted to lieutenant general on December 24, 1858, and, having become colonel of the 1st Regiment of Life Guards on February 27, 1865, he was promoted to general on August 28, 1865, and advanced to Knight Grand Cross of the order of Bath in 1869.

He formally retired in October 1877, but after some lobbying he was promoted to field marshal on June 21, 1887.

He died at 13 South Street, Park Lane, London, on November 10, 1888, and was buried at Laleham in Middlesex.