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Leicester Stanhope, 5th Earl of Harrington

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Leicester FitzGerald Charles Stanhope, 5th Earl of Harrington, CB (2 September 1784 – 7 September 1862),[1] styled The Honourable Leicester Stanhope until 1851, was an English peer and soldier.

Early life

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Leicester Stanhope was born in Dublin in 1784, the third son of Charles Stanhope, 3rd Earl of Harrington, and Jane Stanhope, Countess of Harrington (née Fleming).

Career

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Stanhope became a Cornet and Sublieutenant in the 1st Regiment of Life Guards on 1 October 1799.[2] He was promoted lieutenant on 20 October 1802.[1] He exchanged into the 9th Regiment of Foot on 19 March 1803,[3] and on 2 April 1803 purchased a captaincy in the 10th (Prince of Wales's Own) Regiment of (Light) Dragoons.[4] On 9 November 1803, he exchanged into the Carabiniers (6th Dragoon Guards),[5] and on 27 January 1813, into the 17th Regiment of Light Dragoons.[6] In 1807 he served in South America, and was present at the attack on Buenos Aires.[7] Promoted major, he was appointed Deputy Adjutant-General in the East Indies on 29 June 1815, as a brevet lieutenant-colonel.[8] He exchanged into the 47th Regiment of Foot while serving there and was appointed Deputy Quartermaster-General on 24 April 1817.[9]

From late 1817 to 1818, Stanhope and his regiment took part in the Third Anglo-Maratha War. On 14 October 1818, he was appointed a Companion of the Bath for his service in the conflict.[10] He resigned as quartermaster on 29 March 1821[11] and purchased an unattached lieutenant-colonelcy on 26 June 1823.[12] He was brevetted colonel on 10 January 1837.[13]

He is known as a worker with Lord Byron in the cause of Greek independence, although while he was in Greece in 1823 and 1824 his relations with Byron were not altogether harmonious. He wrote A Sketch of the History and Influence of the Press in British India (1823), and Greece, in 1823 and 1824.[14]

Personal life and death

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On 23 April 1831, at St James's Church, Piccadilly, he married Elizabeth Green, daughter of William Green[1] and Ann Rose Hall, both of Jamaica. They had four children:

In 1851, he inherited the earldom from his brother, Charles Stanhope, 4th Earl of Harrington.

Front View of Harrington House, 1852

In 1852 Stanhope acquired a plot of land formerly belonging to the kitchen garden of Kensington Palace: he constructed Harrington House (or No. 13 Kensington Palace Gardens), which was built in his favourite gothic style, at the cost of £15,000.[15] Harrington House was owned by the family until the First World War; Since 1930 Harrington House has been home to the Russian Embassy.[15] The exterior of the house was designed by Decimus Burton, following plans sketched by the Earl.[16] Works were carried under the supervision of Charles James Richardson, who was the surveyor to the Earl's extensive South Kensington estate.[16] Details and the final plans are thought to have been left to Richardson; he did, however, acknowledge the "great measure" the Earl was involved in the design.[16] The house's unorthodox architecture was widely criticised, including by Richardson; Lord Harrington, however, thought it to be "a house without a fault".[16]

Stanhope died 7 September 1862, aged 78, at Harrington House.[7]
He was succeeded by his son: Sydney Seymour Hyde Stanhope, 6th Earl of Harrington

References

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  1. ^ a b c Doyle, James William Edmund (1886). The Official Baronage of England, v. 2. London: Longmans, Green. p. 136.
  2. ^ "No. 15188". The London Gazette. 28 September 1799. p. 995.
  3. ^ "No. 15567". The London Gazette. 15 March 1803. pp. 287–288.
  4. ^ "No. 15571". The London Gazette. 29 March 1803. p. 369.
  5. ^ "No. 15641". The London Gazette. 8 November 1803. p. 1545.
  6. ^ "No. 16697". The London Gazette. 23 January 1813. p. 186.
  7. ^ a b Norgate, Gerald le Grys (1898). "Stanhope, Leicester Fitzgerald Charles" . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 54. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 20–21.
  8. ^ "No. 17037". The London Gazette. 8 July 1815. p. 1355.
  9. ^ "No. 17248". The London Gazette. 6 May 1817. p. 1087.
  10. ^ "No. 17409". The London Gazette. 18 October 1818. p. 1851.
  11. ^ "No. 17695". The London Gazette. 7 April 1821. p. 782.
  12. ^ "No. 17937". The London Gazette. 5 July 1823. p. 1090.
  13. ^ "No. 19456". The London Gazette. 10 January 1837. p. 65.
  14. ^ Stanhope, Leicester (1825). Greece, in 1823 and 1824.
  15. ^ a b "NO.13 KENSINGTON PALACE GARDENS: HARRINGTON HOUSE". Russian Embassy. Archived from the original on 5 March 2013. Retrieved 17 April 2013.
  16. ^ a b c d Sheppard, F. H. W., ed. (1973). Survey of London: volume 37: Northern Kensington: The Crown estate in Kensington Palace Gardens: Individual buildings. pp. 162–193.
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Peerage of Great Britain
Preceded by Earl of Harrington
1851–1862 		Succeeded by
Baron Harrington
1851–1862
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