Benjamin Bloomfield, 1st Baron Bloomfield

Who was Benjamin Bloomfield, 1st Baron Bloomfield?

Lieutenant-General Benjamin Bloomfield, 1st Baron Bloomfield GCB GCH was Private Secretary to the Sovereign 1817–1822.

Bloomfield was born in 1768, the son of John Bloomfield and Anne Charlotte Waller. and educated at the Royal Military Academy Woolwich. He joined the Royal Artillery and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in 1781. He served in Newfoundland, Gibraltar, and at Brighton in 1806, where, as a brevet Major, he was in charge of a troop of the Royal Horse Artillery. In 1814 he was promoted to Major-General. By 1826 he was Commanding Officer of the garrison at Woolwich. He became Colonel Commandant of the Royal Horse Artillery.

He was Member of Parliament for Plymouth from 1812 from 1818, and made a Privy Councillor in 1817.

He was an Aide-de-Camp 1811–1814, was Chief Equerry and Clerk Marshal to the Prince of Wales, and was Private Secretary to the King, Keeper of the Privy Purse, and Receiver of the Duchy of Cornwall 1817–1822.

He was knighted in 1815, and received the GCB in 1822, and ennobled as Lord Bloomfield in 1825.

He married Harriott Douglas, daughter of John Douglas, on 7 September 1797.