Raymond Asquith
Raymond Asquith | |
---|---|
Born | 6 November 1878 |
Died | 15 September 1916 near Ginchy, France | (aged 37)
Cause of death | Killed in action |
Resting place | CWGC Guillemont Road Cemetery |
Nationality | British |
Education | Winchester College Balliol College, Oxford |
Occupation | Lawyer |
Spouse | Katharine Frances Horner |
Children |
|
Parents |
|
Military career | |
Allegiance | United Kingdom |
Service/ | British Army |
Years of service | 1915-16 |
Unit | 3rd Battalion, Grenadier Guards |
Battles/wars | First World War
|
Raymond Herbert Asquith (6 November 1878 – 15 September 1916) was an English
Career and honours
Asquith was the eldest son of British prime minister H. H. Asquith (1852-1928) by his first wife, Helen Kelsall Melland (1854-1891).
He was educated at
Asquith was junior
While leading the first half of 4
In his 1928 obituary tribute to H.H. Asquith, Winston Churchill summarised Asquith's last moments:
"It seemed quite easy for Raymond Asquith, when the time came, to face death and to die. When I saw him at the Front he seemed to move through the cold, squalor and peril of the winter trenches as if he were above and immune from the common ills of the flesh, a being clad in polished armour, entirely undisturbed, presumably invulnerable. The War which found the measure of so many, never got to the bottom of him, and when the Grenadiers strode into the crash and thunder of the Somme, he went to his fate cool, poised, resolute, matter of fact, debonair. And well we know that his father, then bearing the supreme burden of the State, would proudly have marched at his side"[9]
The writer John Buchan devoted several pages of his autobiography Memory Hold-the-Door to his friendship with Asquith. He noted of Raymond's character:
"I do not think he could ever have been called popular. He was immensely admired, but he did not lay himself out to acquire popularity, and in the ordinary man he inspired awe rather than liking. His courtesy was without warmth, he was apt to be intolerant of mediocrity, and he had no desire for facile acquaintanceships. Also – let it be admitted – there were times when he was almost inhuman. He would destroy some piece of honest sentiment with a jest, and he had no respect for the sacred places of dull men. There was always a touch of scorn in him for obvious emotions, obvious creeds, and all the accumulated lumber of prosaic humanity. That was a defect of his great qualities. He kept himself for his friends and refused to bother about the world. But as such who were to his friendship he would deny nothing. I have never known a friend more considerate, and tender, and painstaking, and unfalteringly loyal. It was the relation of all others in life for which he had been born with a peculiar genius."[10]
Buchan's analysis of Asquith's personality is endorsed by several other contemporaries who found him clever but rather arrogant, cold, cynical and aloof.
Memorials
A memorial tablet to Asquith's memory was erected in
In piam memoriam Raymondi Asquith Coll. Wintoniensis et Balliolensis scholaris Coll. Omnium Animarum socii qui in foro et republica ad omnia ingenii virtutisque praemia spe et votis aequalium destinatus medio in flore aetatis armis pro patria sumptis fortiter pugnans occidit defunctum terra tenet longinqua et amica desiderio inexpleto prosequuntur sui
N. VI NOV. MDCCCLXXVIII OB. XV SEPT. MCMXVI[12]
In English the text reads:
In loving memory of Raymond Asquith Scholar of Winchester College and Balliol College Fellow of All Souls College Who was destined by the hopes and desires of his contemporaries To win all the rewards of intellectual talent and virtue. In the middle of the flower of his life He took up arms for his native-land and died fighting bravely. A distant and friendly land holds him now he is dead. His family and friends mourn him with unrequited longing. Born on 6 November 1878, died on 15 September 1916.[13]
Asquith and his wife Katharine are portrayed in
Family
Raymond Asquith was married on 25 July 1907 to
Asquith and his wife had three children:
- Lady Helen Frances Asquith OBE (1908–2000), a school teacher and inspector who died unmarried
- Perdita Rose Mary Jolliffe, Baroness Hylton (nee Asquith) (1910–1996) who married the 4th Baron Hylton (d 1967)
- Julian Edward George Asquith, 2nd Earl of Oxford and Asquith, KCMG (1916–2011), nicknamed Trim, who was born a few months before his father's death on active service. The new baby was reputedly named "Trim" in honour of the Roman gourmand Trimalchio, after his father saw his newborn son for the first time while on leave from the war.[19]
Asquith died nearly ten years before his father was raised to the House of Lords in 1925 as Earl of Oxford and Asquith. Katharine eventually inherited Mells Manor because her younger and only surviving brother, Edward Horner (1888–1917), was also killed in the war.[20] He was buried in France, but his memorial in St Andrew's Church, Mells was designed by his mother's friend Edwin Lutyens, who was a patron of Monsignor Ronald Knox. Katharine converted to Roman Catholicism after being widowed and became a friend of Siegfried Sassoon, who also converted, following her example.[21] She also remained in touch with Evelyn Waugh, another convert.[22] All three of her children were brought up as Roman Catholics.
References
- ^ 1881 England Census
- ^ "Mr. Asquith's Bereavement – Message of Sympathy from the King". The Times. 20 September 1916. p. 11.
- ^ "University intelligence". The Times. No. 36949. London. 12 December 1902. p. 8.
- ^ Asquith and the Conspiracy to Sink Titanic: ET Research (2004) by Senan Molony – 9 July 2004. Encyclopedia-titanica.org. Retrieved on 2012-06-24.
- ^ "No. 29027". The London Gazette. 1 January 1915. p. 132.
- ^ "No. 29262". The London Gazette. 13 August 1915. p. 8024.
- ^ Farrah-Hockley, Anthony (1966). The Somme. p. 238.
- ^ "Casualty Details: Asquith, Raymond". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
- ^ Clifford, Colin (2003). "The Asquiths." London: John Murray Page 366
- ^ Buchan, John (1940). "Pilgrim's Way." Cambridge: Houghton Mifflin Pages 52-53
- ^ Historic England. "Mells War Memorial (1058315)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 7 February 2016.
- ^ Pym, Dora; Silver, Nancy, eds. (1952). "Raymond Asquith's Epitaph". Alive on men's lips: an anthology of Rome and the Latin language in the life of twenty centuries. p. 142.
- ^ Inglis, Susan (18 September 2008). "A Visit to… Mells". Retrieved 18 January 2018.
- ^ Lundy, Darryl. "Katharine Frances Horner". The Peerage. Retrieved 29 January 2018.[unreliable source]
- ^ The Papers of Alfred Duff Cooper (1st Viscount Norwich). janus.lib.cam.ac.uk
- ^ See Oxford DNB: Frances Horner and Encyclopedia Titanica. Her elder sister Cicely Horner (1883–1972), wife since 1908 of the Hon. George Lambton (1860–1945), fifth son of the 2nd Earl of Durham was painted by John Singer Sargent.
- ^ "A Journey to Mells". 14 February 2006. Archived from the original on 5 December 2008. Retrieved 24 June 2012.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link). andrewcusack.com (14 February 2006). - ^ theglasgowstory.com
- ^ Clarissa Eden (2007) A Memoir: From Churchill to Eden
- ^ "Apollo Magazine, 7 August 2007". Archived from the original on 8 February 2012. Retrieved 5 February 2008.
- ^ "Mells Report" Archived 28 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine. Warpoets.org. Retrieved on 2012-06-24.
- ^ "Without Waugh, there would be no adventure – Telegraph"[dead link]. Telegraph.co.uk (27 May 2003). Retrieved on 2012-06-24.
Sources
- Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. K. D. Reynolds, 'Horner, Frances Jane, Lady Horner (1854/5–1940)’, first published September 2004, 580 words, with portrait illustration. Oxford DNB: Frances Horner (citation only), full article available via subscription only.
- Jolliffe, John (ed.) Raymond Asquith: Life and Letters (Collins, 1980)
External links
- Photographs of Raymond Asquith and his wife at the NPG taken by Lady Ottoline Morrell.
- A fuller profile of Raymond Asquith including the text of his Times obituary.
- Mells, Somerset