Holcombe Ingleby

Holcombe Ingleby (18 March 1854 – 6 August 1926 ) was an English solicitor and Conservative Party politician. He was mayor of the borough of King's Lynn in Norfolk, and for eight years a Member of Parliament (MP) for King's Lynn.

Born on 18 March 1854, he was the son of the distinguished Shakespearian scholar, Clement Mansfield Ingleby (1823–1886) and his wife, Sarah Oakes (d. 3 January 1906), of whom he contributed an interesting memoir to the Dictionary of National Biography. Ingleby died 6 August 1926 at Sedgeford Hall, Norfolk, at the age of 72.

From his father — originally a Birmingham man who settled near Ilford, in Essex — Holcombe Ingleby inherited everything except the ill health which interfered so much with the elder Ingleby's work; he had wealth for instance, some antiquarian tastes, much musical knowledge, and a fine voice. He went up to Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and took honours in History. After entering at Inner Temple, he changed his mind and was admitted a solicitor, practising for several years in London. The title of his firm was Ingleby and Royds, which afterwards became Royds, Rawstorne, and Co. to Harriett Jane Neville Rolfe, daughter of C. F. Neville Rolfe, of Heacham Hall, took him to Norfolk and King's Lynn. There he passed most of the remaining years of his life throwing himself into the affairs of the ancient borough. One of his most lasting legacies is the Royal West Norfolk Golf Club, opened in 1892, whose course he laid out.

He became Mayor of King's Lynn in 1909, and again from 1919 to 1922. He had desired that office, partly because he was fond of the place and people and a born administrator, but also for the sentimental reason that his wife's ancestors had held it 200 years before. In 1919 and 1923 he edited the Red Register of King's Lynn, described in The Times as "a collection of records of no little importance for students of social life and organization in England during the 14th and 15th centuries." At the December 1910 general election he stood as Conservative candidate for the borough, and defeated the former member, the energetic and independent Thomas Gibson Bowles by a majority of 97. that Ingleby was popular. The House of Commons liked him for geniality and common sense; at the Carlton Club, at Boodle's, and at The Athenæum he was always welcome.