Ralph Bernal Osborne


Ralph Bernal Osborne of Newtown Anner House, County Tipperary, MP, born and baptised with the name of Ralph Bernal, Jr., was a British Liberal politician.

Life

He was the eldest son of London Sephardic Spanish and Portuguese Jewish Parliamentarian Ralph Bernal, himself an MP, who died in 1854, and wife Ann Elizabeth. The younger Bernal entered the military in 1831, as an Ensign of the 71st Regiment of Foot. He later served with the 7th Regiment of Foot, and finally left the army in 1844 with the rank of Captain.
He had already been elected to Parliament in 1841 as a member for Chipping Wycombe, in the Liberal interest, and later sat for Middlesex, Dover, Liskeard, Nottingham, and Waterford City.
In the Railway Times of 21 June 1845 he is the first person listed in the provisional committee for the Leicester, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Burton-upon-Trent and Stafford Junction Railway: Ralph R. Bernal Osborne, MP for Wycombe, address: Albemarle Street. The railway was never built.
Beside being a Parliamentarian, he was also Secretary of the Admiralty.
When he died, his house at Newtown Anner, Clonmel, County Tipperary, Munster, Ireland, was surrounded by more than of land.

Family

On 20 August 1844 he married Catherine Isabella Osborne, from an Anglo-Irish landed family, the daughter of Sir Thomas Osborne, 9th Baronet and Catherine Rebecca Smith, and on the same day he took her name and his name was legally changed by Royal Licence, becoming Ralph Bernal Osborne.
His two daughters shared his estate. His older daughter, Edith Bernal Osborne, married at Slough, Ireland, on 7 February 1874 Sir Henry Arthur Blake. His younger daughter, Grace Bernal Osborne, married at Newtown Anner, County Tipperary, on 3 January 1874 William Amelius Aubrey de Vere Beauclerk, 10th Duke of St Albans. His grandson was Osborne Beauclerk, 12th Duke of St Albans.