Percy Douglas, 10th Marquess of Queensberry
Percy Sholto Douglas, 10th Marquess of Queensberry (13 October 1868 – 1 August 1920) was a Scottish aristocrat.
Born in
Career
In his youth Douglas served in the Royal Navy as a midshipman, then in the British Army as 2nd lieutenant in the 3rd (Militia) Battalion of the King's Own Scottish Borderers from 1889 to 1891.[1]
He went to Kalgoorlie, Australia, as a gold prospector during the gold rush beginning in 1893, and later managed a road house in Canada. He returned to London, where he engaged in some failed financial undertakings. In 1911 he went to the United States where he worked as a reporter on New York City and Chicago newspapers.[2]
Dealings with his father and Oscar Wilde
Douglas, not his father's heir until his elder brother's death, had a troubled relationship with his father, who once called him "that so-called skunk of a son of mine". The atheist ninth Marquess disowned him for marrying a clergyman's daughter in 1893 before going to Australia, but effected a reconciliation when he returned. During the Oscar Wilde trials in 1895, his father assaulted him on a London street, leading to both men being bound over to keep the peace for £500 (worth at least £29,945 in 2005).[3] In 1900 his dying father spat on him when he came to visit.[4]
Three weeks following their father's funeral, the new Marquess and Lord Alfred visited Wilde in Paris, where the Anglo-Irish Wilde recalled that they were "in deep mourning and the highest spirits. The English[5] are like this."[4] He dissipated what remained of the family fortune in less than eighteen months and was sued for bankruptcy in December 1901.[6]
Family
The Marquess was married twice:
- Firstly, on 11 September 1893, to Anna Maria (known as "Minnie"[1]), daughter of the Reverend Thomas Walters, Vicar of Royston near Launceston, Cornwall.[7] She was born in 1866 and died on 25 April 1917,[7] leaving issue a daughter and two sons:
- Dorothy Madeline Douglas, born 5 July 1894. Married, 1924, Esmond Brasnell Palmer on 4 Oct 1924 The Garrison Church, Saint Andrew, Jamaica.[7]
- Francis Archibald Kelhead Douglas, born 17 January 1896, died 27 April 1954[7]
- Cecil Charles Douglas, born 27 December 1898, died 26 February 1981[7]
- Secondly, on 4 December 1918, Mary Louise, daughter of Richard Bickel of Cardiff, Wales, and widow of Ernest Morgan.[7] The couple had no children and she died 4 April 1956.[7]
The Marquess died on 1 August 1920 in Johannesburg, South Africa, aged 51, and was succeeded as 11th Marquess by his elder son. He was buried in England at Kensal Green Cemetery, London.
References
- ^ a b Kelly's Handbook to the Titled, Landed and Official Classes, 1920. Kelly's. p. 1335.
- ^ The Complete Peerage, Volume X. St Catherine's Press. 1945. p. 707.
- ^ [1] National Archives currency converter figure (based on year 1890)
- ^ ISBN 0-19-861366-0.Article on 9th Marquess by John Davis.
- ^ Note the brothers were of Scottish blood but Lord Alfred Douglas was England-born.
- ^ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Volume 16. pp. 695–696.
- ^ ISBN 2-940085-02-1.