CHURCHMAN, Sir Arthur Charles
Arthur Charles Churchman was born on 7 September 1867, son of Henry Charles Churchman (12 December 1826-8 July 1888), tobacco merchant, of Paget House, Ipswich, and his wife Mary Anna Eade (1829-8 December 1896), daughter of Charles Eade. Sir William Alfred Churchman (23 August 1863–25 November 1947), 1st Baronet, was his elder brother. Arthur was educated at Ipswich School, after which he went into partnership with his elder brother William, in the family tobacco firm which had been founded by their great-grandfather William Churchman in 1790, which was renamed W. A. & A. C. Churchman which at one time employed over 1,000 people. About 1904 the company was combined as Imperial Tobacco and British-American Tobacco when Churchman became vice-chairman of the British American Tobacco Company. Arthur Churchman was elected Mayor of Ipswich in 1901, his brother William had been mayor between 1899 and 1900. A lieutenant-colonel in the Essex and Suffolk Royal Garrison Artillery between 1905 and 1909 and commanded a Territorial Force Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment as a temporary lieutenant-colonel in the First World War. In 1917 created a baronet, of Abbey Oaks in the Parish of Sproughton in the County of Suffolk and was known as Sir Arthur Churchman, Bt, between 1917 and in the Birthday Honours List of 1932 elevated to the peerage as the 1st Lord Woodbridge of Ipswich. In 1920, Churchman was returned to Parliament for Woodbridge, which he retained until 1929. Appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Suffolk in 1930 and served as High Sheriff of the county in 1931 and between 1932 and 1949, as Lord Woodbridge was High Steward of Ipswich. He married at St Mary Stoke, Ipswich on 23 July 1891, Edith Harvey (1869-), only daughter of Julius Augustus Harvey and his wife Kate née Pearce, they had three sons Henry Arthur, Charles Harvey (1893-1908), Walter Eric (1895-1917), and two daughters Mary Helen (1887-1924) and Vera Kate (Barnett) born in 1913, except for daughter Vera Kate, all predeceased him. A member of the Ipswich Fine Art Club from 1913 until 1947 and although noted as an exhibitor from Abbey Oaks, Sproughton, Ipswich in 1923 does not seem to have anything on display. Arthur Charles Churchman, Lord Woodbridge, died at The Mount Nelson Hotel, Cape Town, South Africa on 2 February 1949, aged 81, when both the baronetcy and barony became extinct, his net estate was valued more than £1.3 million.