John Philip Bagwell

John Philip Bagwell (11 August 1874 – 22 August 1946) was an Irish businessman and politician.

Early life and family Bagwell was born on 11 August 1874, the son of Harriet Newton and Richard Bagwell. The Bagwells of Marlfield could trace their arrival in Ireland to John Bagwell (Backwell), a captain in Cromwell's New Model Army.

He was educated at Harrow School and Trinity College, Oxford.

Bagwell married Louisa Shaw in 1901, the daughter of George Shaw, a Major General. They had three children. and promoted to lieutenant on 28 July 1900.

Business After Oxford, he joined the Midland Railway, England, where he served as an assistant superintendent of line from 1905 to 1909. He then returned to Ireland and served as superintendent of passenger services from 1910 to 1911.

Politics Bagwell became an independent member of Seanad Éireann in the Irish Free State in 1922, and held that office until 1936. He was nominated to the Seanad by the President of the Executive Council in 1922 for 6 years. He was elected for six years in 1928. He was re-elected for a further six years in 1934, but served until the abolition of the Free State Seanad in 1936.

Bagwell, however, maintained that he escaped his captors through his own efforts and his safe release could not be attributed to these threats. At around the same time, the family residence at Marlfield House, Clonmel, County Tipperary, was burned by anti-Treaty forces and the library of rare historical documents destroyed.