having sat with ten Prime Ministers from Disraeli to Baldwin. However, because he had not been an MP continuously, he did not hold the title of Father of the House. Agg-Gardner was known to be gay. Wine Christie's has a library of its old auction catalogues, and many of the wine auctions in the first three decades of the twentieth century show bidding by "Agg-Gardner", sometimes successful. He was also mentioned by André L. Simon in an article titled The Soliloquy of a Bibulous Bibliophile: Is there anybody anywhere today, I sometimes wonder, who had the opportunities which were mine, during three score and ten years of my adult life, to enjoy wonderful wines, the like of which the post-wars generations will never know, and the privilege to enjoy them with such wonderful friends? I doubt it. One of my oldest friends–he was born in 1847–was Sir James Agg-Gardner, a little man and a great lover of wine: he was M.P. for Cheltenham, and Chairman of the Kitchen Committee of the House of Commons; he was one of a few friends who lunched with me at my old Mark Lane headquarters, in 1918, to celebrate my return to civilian life. There were still, on that day, four magnums of Cockburn 1847 in the cellar; we had one of them and it really was magnificent! We were on the eve of a General Election and we all drank good luck to Sir James in the wine of his own vintage. I promised him, somewhat rashly, another magnum of 1847 Cockburn, should he be re-elected. He was re-elected, of course, not only that year, but twice again during the next twelve months: it took three elections in two years to get a working majority, and this was why and how my last three magnums of Cockburn 1847 went in two years! No regrets: they were at their best and could not possibly have been any better had they been kept any longer. Publications Notes References External links 1846 births 1928 deaths People from Cheltenham People educated at Harrow School Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom UK MPs 1874–1880 UK MPs 1885–1886 UK MPs 1886–1892 UK MPs 1892–1895 UK MPs 1900–1906 UK MPs 1910–1918 UK MPs 1918–1922 UK MPs 1922–1923 UK MPs 1923–1924 UK MPs 1924–1929 Knights Bachelor English justices of the peace