Alexander Meyrick Broadley

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Alexander Meyrick Broadley (1847–1916), known to friends as Broadley Pasha, was a British barrister, writer and social figure. He is best remembered for defending Ahmed Urabi after the Egyptian nationalist’s revolt failed.

Born in Dorset, he was the son of a clergyman and his wife. He went to several grammar schools and joined Lincoln’s Inn in 1866 to study law. In 1869 he went to India, where he became Assistant Magistrate and Collector of Patna in Bengal. In 1872 he led a survey of the ruins at Nalanda and gathered a large collection of sculptures, eventually creating a museum from them.

Broadley was outspoken and ambitious. He gave lectures on English law for India, argued that imprisonment for civil debts should end, and spoke against the Indian government’s education policy. His public comments in Bengal led to clashes with the Lieutenant-Governor, Sir George Campbell. He was suspended and moved to various postings, and an arrest warrant for homosexual offences added to his troubles. He eventually left India and moved to Tunis, where he worked as a lawyer and wrote for The Times. One of his clients was the Bey of Tunis. He also became active in freemasonry, helping to found the Drury Lane Masonic Lodge.

In 1882 Broadley published The last Punic War, Tunis, past and present, which earned good reviews. That same year he acted as counsel for Ahmed Urabi in Cairo, helping to secure a settlement that sent Urabi and his companions to Colombo as pensioners. Broadley was paid 10,000 guineas for his work and earned the nickname Broadley Pasha.

After returning to England, Broadley became the de facto editor of Edmund Yates’s World and enjoyed a high public profile in London society. He was known as a charming social connector who “knew everyone.” His 1887 40th birthday party was a who’s who of the era. In 1889 a Vanity Fair portrait of him irritated the Prince of Wales, and Broadley was expelled from England amid rumours connected to the Cleveland Street scandal and a brothel case. He moved to Paris and then Brussels, where he edited The Belgian News and kept up his social circles. He also faced police surveillance over past associations.

In the 1890s Broadley wandered between Europe and North Africa, maintaining his reputation as a witty and adaptable figure. He helped promote the schemes of the fraudster Ernest Hooley in 1896, and by 1898 Broadley was involved in Hooley’s bankruptcy case, charged with contempt of court and perjury along with others. He was found guilty of some charges but avoided bankruptcy and presented himself as a country gentleman once more. The controversy followed him into Parliament, where officials acknowledged the past warrants but offered little action.

Broadley eventually returned to his home village of Bradpole, Dorset, where he built a tall, picturesque house called The Knapp. The last years of his life were devoted to writing and collecting books, especially on Napoleon and criminal jurisprudence. He built a large, grangerized library of about 600 volumes. He produced historical works, including The Boyhood of a Great King (1906), which drew mixed reviews, and he supported the Bath Historical Pageant, even appearing as Beau Nash.

In 1911 he walked the route Charles II took in 1651 and wrote The Royal Miracle, inspired by the play The Royal Oak. Broadley never married and died on 16 April 1916 in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire. By then his earlier crimes and scandals were largely forgotten, though some commentators noted how public opinion can overlook a person’s faults in the face of charm and cleverness.

In his will he left about £8,500, most to his nephew R.A.L. Broadley, who sold part of his collection. Broadley’s Napoleona was bought by Lord Curzon and given to Oxford University, where it is now in the Bodleian Library. Other grangerized volumes went to libraries and archives, including the Theatre Collection at Westminster City Archives and the Royal Society. The contents of his Nalanda museum were moved to the Indian Museum in Kolkata. The Knapp still stands in Bradpole, now serving as a nursing home, with its gatehouse as a separate residence. A phonograph recording survives of Broadley delivering a toast in 1888.