View source for Frederick A. Britten

{{Short description|American politician (1871–1946)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2022}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|name         = Frederick A. Britten
|image        = FrederickABritten.jpg
|caption      = Britten ({{circa|1910–1915)}}
|state        = [[Illinois]]
|district     = {{ushr|Illinois|9|9th}}
|term_start   = March 4, 1913
|term_end     = January 3, 1935
|predecessor  = [[Lynden Evans]]
|successor    = [[James McAndrews]]
|office1      = Member of the [[Chicago City Council]] from the 23rd ward
|term_start1   = 1908
|term_end1    = 1912
|predecessor1 = Mathias J. Jacobs
|successor1   = John Kjellander	
|birth_name   = Frederick Albert Britten
|birth_date   = {{Birth date|1871|11|18}}
|birth_place  = [[Chicago|Chicago, Illinois]], U.S.
|death_date   = {{Death date and age|1946|5|4|1871|11|18}}
|death_place  = [[Bethesda, Maryland]], U.S.
|party        = [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]
|education    = [[Heald's Business College]]
|spouse       = {{marriage|Alma Hand|1907}}
}}

'''Frederick Albert Britten''' (November 18, 1871 – May 4, 1946) was a [[United States House of Representatives|U.S. Representative]] from [[Illinois]].

==Early life==
Frederick Albert Britten was born on November 18, 1871, in [[Chicago|Chicago, Illinois]].<ref name="bio">{{Cite web |url=https://bioguide.congress.gov/search/bio/B000847 |title=Britten, Frederick Albert |work=[[Biographical Directory of the United States Congress]] |access-date=2022-03-05}}</ref> Britten attended [[Heald's Business College]], [[San Francisco, California]].<ref name="bio"/>

Britten competed in an [[amateur boxing]] tournament at the [[World's Columbian Exposition]] in 1893. He won the Pacific Coast Championship in 1892, the Central Championship at Chicago in 1893 and the Eastern Championship at Chicago in 1894.<ref name="obit">{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/97019818/deaths-fred-a-britten-6-may-1946-dix/ |title=Deaths - Fred A. Britten |date=1946-05-06 |newspaper=Dixon Evening Telegraph |location=[[Dixon, Illinois]] |via=[[Newspapers.com]] |access-date=2022-03-05}}{{Open access}}</ref>

==Career==
Britten was a construction worker and a business executive before his political career began. He served as member of the [[Chicago City Council]] from 1908 to 1912, representing the 23rd ward.<ref name=centennial>{{Cite web |url=http://chsmedia.org/media/fa/fa/LIB/AldermansList.htm |title=Centennial List of Mayors, City Clerks, City Attorneys, City Treasurers, and Aldermen, elected by the people of the city of Chicago, from the incorporation of the city on March 4, 1837 to March 4, 1937, arranged in alphabetical order, showing the years during which each official held office. |access-date=December 24, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180904052355/http://chsmedia.org/media/fa/fa/LIB/AldermansList.htm |archive-date=September 4, 2018 |url-status=dead }}</ref> He served as member and chairman of the city civil service committee in 1909. Then he served as member of the executive committee of the American group of the [[Interparliamentary Union]] from 1923 to 1934. He also served as a delegate to the [[1936 Republican National Convention|Republican National Convention]] in 1936.<ref name="bio" />

In the early 1920s, Britten issued resolution condemning France for the "[[Black Horror on the Rhine]]", and which called the Senegalese "semi-civilized, useless and oft-times brutal defamers of women".<ref>{{cite book|last=Campbell|first= Peter |title=The "Black Horror on the Rhine": Idealism, Pacifism, and Racism in Feminism and the Left in the Aftermath of the First World War| pages= 471–496|series= Social History| volume= XLVII| issue= 94|date= June 2014}}</ref>{{rp|pp=488-489}} 

Britten was elected as a [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] to the [[63rd United States Congress|Sixty-third]] and to the ten succeeding Congresses (1913–1935). On April 5, 1917, he was one of the 50 representatives who voted against declaring war on [[German Empire|Germany]]. He served as chairman of the Committee on Naval Affairs from 1928 to 1931 ([[70th United States Congress|Seventieth]] and [[71st United States Congress|Seventy-first]] Congress). Britten worked to repeal the [[Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Eighteenth Amendment]]. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection to the [[74th United States Congress|Seventy-fourth]] Congress in 1934.<ref name="bio"/><ref name="obit"/>

In 1938, he worked on an importing and exporting business in Chicago.<ref name="obit"/>

==Personal life==
[[File:Mrs. Fred Britten LCCN2014698003 (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|His wife, Alma Hand, {{circa}} 1910–1915]]
Britten married Alma Hand of [[Weiser, Idaho]] on March 4, 1907.<ref name="obit"/><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/97020518/marriage-10-mar-1907-chicago-tribune/ |title=Marriage |newspaper=[[Chicago Tribune]] |page=H3 |via=[[Newspapers.com]] |access-date=2022-03-05}}{{Open access}}</ref>

While serving in congress, Britten and his family took up residence at the [[Emma S. Fitzhugh House]] at 2253 R Street Northwest, Washington, D.C., and continued residing there even after retiring from politics in 1935. Britten then bought the house from Emma S. Fitzhugh on June 19, 1941 and eventually sold the house to [[Joaquín Miguel Elizalde|Joaquín M. Elizalde]], the first ambassador of the Philippines to the United States on October 14, 1946. The house then became the official residence of Philippine ambassadors to the United States.

==Death==
Britten died on May 4, 1946, at [[Walter Reed National Military Medical Center|Walter Reed Hospital]] in [[Bethesda, Maryland]].<ref name="bio"/><ref name="obit"/> He was interred in [[Abbey Mausoleum (Arlington County, Virginia)|Abbey Mausoleum]] in [[Arlington County, Virginia]]. He was later reinterred in an unknown location.<ref name="bio"/>

==References==
{{CongBio|B000847}}
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*{{commons category-inline}}

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{{US House succession box
| state = Illinois| district = 9| before= [[Lynden Evans]]| after = [[James McAndrews]]
| years= 1913{{spaced ndash}}1935
}}
{{s-end}}

{{US House Armed Services chairs}}
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{{USCongRep-start|congresses= 63rd–73rd [[United States Congress]]es |state=[[Illinois]]}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Britten, Frederick Albert}}
[[Category:1871 births]]
[[Category:1946 deaths]]
[[Category:American white supremacists]]
[[Category:Chicago City Council members]] <!-- child of Category: Politicians from Chicago -->
[[Category:Boxers from Chicago]]
[[Category:Heald College alumni]]
[[Category:Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Illinois]]
[[Category:American male boxers]]
[[Category:20th-century members of the United States House of Representatives]]