Three gay MPs

James Agg-Gardner (1846-1928)

Born in Cheltenham in 1846, James Tynte Agg-Gardner was Conservative member for Cheltenham in four separate periods between 1874 and 1928, totalling 39 years over out of 54 years and serving under ten prime ministers from Disraeli to Baldwin. He stood down in 1895, possibly for reasons connected to his homosexuality. He regained his seat in 1911 and held it until his death in 1928. He was twice Mayor of Cheltenham in 1906 and 1912 and was knighted the same year.

Described as “a little man, and a great lover of wine”, Irving was short, bald, with a toothy smile and saggy moustache, genial and unassuming. His homosexuality was discreet and sentimental; he lived much of his life in hotels seeking sexual solace from an endless supply of lift-boys and waiters.

Agg Gardner’s brewer father purchased the manor of Cheltenham in the 1840s and James Agg Gardner inherited the title. He lived at The Plough Hotel, Mill Street, Prestbury, and at Evesham House, 21 Evesham Road, Cheltenham from 1888-1907. He then lived at the Queen’s Hotel, The Promenade, Cheltenham.

In 1888 he donated money and opened the Agg Gardner Recreation Ground, Marle Hill Road, Pittville Park. Agg Gardner died at the Carlton Club, London in 1928 aged 81 and was interred in the family vault in Prestbury Cemetery, Cheltenham.

Wikipedia James Agg-Gardner
Martin Horwood James Agg-Gardner
Richard Davenport-Hines No longer outraged.  The Independent 15 November 1998
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: Sir James Tynte Agg-Gardner

Arthur Hobhouse (1886-1965)

Arthur Hobhouse was Liberal MP for Wells 1923-24 and a member of Somerset County Council 1925-1947, becoming an alderman in 1934 and served as chairman 1940-47.

As a young man his love affairs were exclusively homosexual, having long term relationships with writer Lytton Strachey, artist Duncan Grant and economist and philosopher John Maynard Keynes, all of whom were members of the Bloomsbury Group. Hobhouse was considered extremely desirable in Edwardian gay circles and was the subject of much infighting among the gay men of the Bloomsbury Group.

In 1919 Hobhouse married Konradin Huth Jackson and they had five children. They lived at Hadspen House, Castle Cary, Somerset, an estate of 717 acres which was owned by the Hobhouse family for some 230 years from 1785 to 2013 when the house was sold to become a hotel.

Wikipedia Arthur Hobhouse
Central Somerset Gazette, 29 January 1965

Charles Irving  (1924-1995)

Described as “charmingly camp … a dedicated gossip” and a “splendid old queen”, Charles Irving was born in Cheltenham in 1924 and served as Conservative MP for the constituency from 1974-1992. He lived for many years at The Grange, Malvern Road, Cheltenham.

He grew up at the family-run Irving Hotel, High Street. He was educated at Glyngarth School, Douro Road (now Farnley House) and Lucton near Hereford. Leaving school at 14 he started work in hotel kitchens in Bath and by the 1960s was a millionaire with a string of hotels across the country.

He was elected to Cheltenham Borough Council in 1947 and Gloucester County Council the following year. He served as Mayor of Cheltenham 1958-60 and 1971-72.

He was one of the best loved of Cheltenham MPs and for many years discreetly advised the Conservative Campaign for Homosexual Equality, which was controversial during his political career. He was a great admirer of Margaret Thatcher and from the day she was elected Conservative Party leader in 1975 until her resignation fifteen years later he arranged for fresh flowers to be delivered to her. In 1977 he was awarded the freedom of his constituency. He was knighted in 1990.

In 2014 he was accused of sexual abuse in Westminster. A former Irish rent boy alleged that as a 20 year old in 1975 he was plied with alcohol by Irving before being forced to have sex in exchange for £30.

Irving died in 1995 aged 70 and by his request his ashes were scattered over Cheltenham from the air.

In 2018 the studio theatre at the Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham was renamed the Irving Studio Theatre. Sir Charles Irving Close is named after him.

Wikipedia Charles Irving (politician)
Martin Horwood Charles Irving
Elisa Rolle Queer Places – Charles Irving
Former rent boy quizzed by police over claim he was abused by top Tory politicians The Daily Mirror, 20 July 2014.

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