Henry St.John, 5th Viscount Bolingbroke (1820-1899)

The portrait of Henry Mildmay St. John, 5th Viscount Bolingbroke resembles an oil painting but is actually a painted photograph. In contrast to his predecessor's experience, it would appear that finances would not stretch to commissioning an artwork. The inscription on the frame records his death in 1899, suggesting that the picture may have been created for his widow.

Henry lived a controversial private life which brought the family into disrepute. He buried his long-suffering mistress Ellen Medex as 'Viscountess Bolingbroke', later trying to pass off two of his children as theirs and therefore his legitimate heirs. On Henry's death in 1899, the revelation of his secret marriage to his housekeeper at Lydiard Park, Mary Howard (the mother of those children), and the existence of a third and this time legitimate son, was a shock to members of his family.

Lord Bolingbroke was most remembered in Swindon for his long-running dispute with the Great Western Railway Factory over the sounding of the factory hooter, the loud alarm which called men to work.