Somerset de Chair

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Somerset de Chair
Member of Parliament
for Paddington South
In office
23 February 1950 – 4 October 1951
Preceded byErnest Taylor
Succeeded byRobert Allan
Member of Parliament
for South West Norfolk
In office
14 November 1935 – 15 June 1945
Preceded byAlan McLean
Succeeded bySidney Dye
Personal details
Born
Somerset Struben de Chair

(1911-08-22)22 August 1911
Windsor, Berkshire, England
Died5 January 1995(1995-01-05) (aged 83)
Antigua
Political partyConservative
Spouses
Thelma Grace Arbuthnot
​
​
(m. 1932; div. 1950)​
Carmen Appleton
​
​
(m. 1950; div. 1958)​
Margaret Patricia Manlove
​
​
(m. 1958; div. 1974)​
​
​
(m. 1974)​
Children6
Parent(s)
Second World War
  •   · Anglo-Iraqi War
  •   · Battle of Palmyra

    • Somerset Struben de Chair (22 August 1911 – 5 January 1995) was an English author, politician, and poet. He edited several volumes of the memoirs of Napoleon.

    Early and personal life

    De Chair was the younger son of Admiral Sir

    Huguenot origin, descending from Rene de la Chaire, whose grandson, Jean Francois, Councillor to Charles IX, was created a Marquis in 1600 by Henry IV. The family became English gentry through generations of clergymen.[1] He married firstly, on 8 October 1932, Thelma Grace (1911–1974), daughter of Harold Dennison Arbuthnot, of Merristwood Hall, Worplesdon, Surrey. They had two sons: Rodney Somerset and Peter Dudley, and divorced in 1950.[2]

    He married secondly, in 1950, Mrs (June) Carmen Appleton, daughter of A. G. Bowen, of

    Sir Toby Clarke, 6th Baronet).[4] The third marriage ended in divorce in 1974, and that year he married his fourth wife, Lady Juliet Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, only child of Peter Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, 8th Earl Fitzwilliam, who had divorced Victor Hervey, 6th Marquess of Bristol in 1972. Somerset and Lady Juliet had a daughter, Helena, who married Jacob Rees-Mogg. The hurdler Sir Charles Lawrence Somerset Clarke, 7th Baronet is his grandson and the Member of Parliament Theo Clarke
    is his granddaughter.

    Career

    Somerset de Chair was educated at The King's School, Parramatta in New South Wales between 1923 and 1930 before attending Balliol College, Oxford.

    He was Conservative MP for South West Norfolk between 1935 and 1945, losing his seat by 53 votes. He was one of the Conservatives who voted against the government in the Norway Debate in May 1940. He then served as a Parliamentary Private Secretary in 1942–44. De Chair returned to Parliament as MP for Paddington South from 1950 to 1951. Many years later, in 1994, he stood in that year's European Parliament elections as the "Independent Anti European Superstate" candidate for Essex North and Suffolk South, coming in fourth place with 12,409 votes.

    Since he had been a cadet in the

    General Staff with the rank of Acting Captain.[5]

    Writings

    De Chair wrote historical non-fiction, a number of now largely neglected novels, one play, three collections of poetry, and several works of autobiography. He also edited several volumes of the memoirs of Napoleon in English.[6]

    Houses and art

    De Chair was known for his extravagant taste and lived in a series of large country houses. He lived between 1944 and 1949 at Chilham Castle in Kent, and leased Blickling Hall in Norfolk, the former home of the Marquess of Lothian, from the National Trust.[7][8] He owned St Osyth's Priory in Essex from 1954 until his death in 1995, and also bought Bourne Park House in Kent with his last wife, Lady Juliet Wentworth-Fitzwilliam.

    Bibliography

    Fiction
    • Enter Napoleon (1934)
    • Red Tie in the Morning (1936)
    • The Teetotalitarian State (1947)
    • The Dome of the Rock (1948)
    • The Story of a Lifetime (1954)
    • Bring Back the Gods (1962)
    • Friends, Romans, Concubines (1973)
    • The Star of the Wind (1974)
    • Legend of the Yellow River (1979)
    Non-fiction
    • The Impending Storm (1930)
    • Divided Europe (1931)
    • The Golden Carpet (1943)
    • The Silver Crescent (1943)
    • Mind on the March (1945)
    Edited and translated
    • The First Crusade (1945)
    • Napoleon's Memoirs (1945)
    • Napoleon's Supper at Beaucaire (1945)
    • Julius Caesar's Commentaries (1951)
    • Napoleon on Napoleon (1992)
    Edited
    • The Sea is Strong (1961)
    • Getty on Getty (1989)
    Autobiographies
    • Buried Pleasure (1985)
    • Morning Glory (1988)
    • Die? I Thought I'd Laugh (1993)
    Drama
    • Peter Public (1932)
    Poetry collections
    • The Millennium (1949)
    • Songs from St. Osyth: The Collected Verse (1970)
    • Sounds of Summer (1992)

    References

    1. ^ Burke's Landed Gentry, eighteenth edition, vol. I, ed. Peter Townend, 1965, p. 195
    2. ^ Burke's Landed Gentry, eighteenth edition, vol. I, ed. Peter Townend, 1965, p. 195
    3. ^ Burke's Landed Gentry, eighteenth edition, vol. I, ed. Peter Townend, 1965, p. 195
    4. ^ Burke's Landed Gentry, eighteenth edition, vol. I, ed. Peter Townend, 1965, p. 195
    5. ^ Houterman, Hans; Koppes, Jeroen. "British Army Officers 1939-1945 - T. Deacon to W.G.M. Dixon". www.unithistories.com. Retrieved 28 May 2014.
    6. ^ British Library Retrieved 17 September 2017.
    7. ^ "Stosyth.gov.uk - Mar 04 200 Years Ago". Archived from the original on 27 September 2011. Retrieved 1 September 2011.
    8. ^ "Chilham Castle - Country House & Gardens". Archived from the original on 10 August 2011. Retrieved 1 September 2011.

    External links

    Parliament of the United Kingdom
    Preceded by Member of Parliament for South West Norfolk
    1935 – 1945     		Succeeded by
    Preceded by Member of Parliament for Paddington South
    1950 – 1951     		Succeeded by
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