Lord Henry Somerset
Victoria | |
|---|---|
| Prime Minister | Benjamin Disraeli |
| Preceded by | Lord Otho FitzGerald |
| Succeeded by | The Earl of Yarmouth |
| Member of Parliament for Monmouthshire | |
| In office 1871–1880 Serving with Octavius Morgan, Frederick Courtenay Morgan | |
| Preceded by | Octavius Morgan Poulett Somerset |
| Succeeded by | Frederick Courtenay Morgan John Rolls |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 7 December 1849 |
| Died | 10 October 1932 (aged 82) Florence, Italy |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Spouse | |
| Children | Henry Somerset |
| Parent(s) | Henry Somerset, 8th Duke of Beaufort Lady Georgiana Charlotte Curzon |
Lord Henry Richard Charles Somerset,
Early life
Somerset was the second son of
Career
Somerset was elected at a by-election in 1871 as
and Monmouthshire.Personal life
Somerset married Lady Isabella Caroline Somers-Cocks,[6] the eldest daughter and co-heir of Charles Somers-Cocks, 3rd Earl Somers, on 6 February 1872. They had one child, but their marriage collapsed after a few years because of Lord Henry's infatuation with a seventeen-year-old boy and his homosexuality.[7][8]
As a result, he withdrew to Italy, while his wife was ostracised from society for having made public, contrary to the conventions of the time, why she had left him.[9] Their only child was:
- Henry Charles Somers Augustus (1874–1945), who married Lady Katherine Beauclerk, a daughter of William Beauclerk, 10th Duke of St Albans; their grandson, David Somerset, 11th Duke of Beaufort, would succeed to the dukedom of Beaufort in 1984.[10] After Lady Katherine's death, he married Brenda, dowager Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava, widow of Frederick Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 3rd Marquess of Dufferin and Ava, and only daughter of Major Robert Woodhouse, of Orford House, Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, on 28 January 1932.[11] They had no issue.
Lady Henry died in March 1921. Somerset remained a widower until his death in Florence in October 1932, aged 82.[12]
Poetry and music
Somerset is the author of a book of poetry, Songs of adieu (1889), which the scholar Timothy D'Arch Smith has identified as "the first book of
References
- ISBN 0-900178-26-4.
- ^ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "M" (part 3)
- ^ "No. 24072". The London Gazette. 6 March 1874. p. 1519.
- ^ "No. 24071". The London Gazette. 3 March 1874. p. 1453.
- ^ "No. 24675". The London Gazette. 7 February 1879. p. 601.
- ^ Black, Ros. "Lady Henry Somerset 1851 - 1921". Archived from the original on 4 June 2012.
- ^ https://londonstoneandmetal.wordpress.com/2016/02/07/victoria-embankment-gardens-temple-section-3/
- ^ https://www.exploringsurreyspast.org.uk/themes/subjects/womens-suffrage/suffrage-biographies/lady-henry-somerset-1851-1921/
- ^ Rodney Bell (2011) As Good as God, As Clever as the Devil: The Impossible Life of Mary Benson
- ^ "Duke of Beaufort Dies at 83; Renowned as a Fox Hunter". The New York Times. 6 February 1984. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
- ^ "LADY DUFFERIN WED TO CAPT. SOMERSET; Widow of Marquess of Dnfferin and Ava Married to Son of Lord Henry Somerset". The New York Times. 29 January 1932. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
- ^ a b "ENGLISH COMPOSER DIES IN FLORENCE; Lord Henry Somerset Had Been Residing in Italy Since Separation From Wife. ONCE CONSERVATIVE M.P. Controller of Queen Victoria's House- hold, 1874-79 -- Ballads Long Popular In England". The New York Times. 12 October 1932. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
- ^ Timothy d'Arch Smith, Love in Earnest: Some Notes on the Lives and Writings of English "Uranian" Poets from 1889 to 1930 (1970), p. 24
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