Lord Henry Somerset
Lord Henry Somerset | |
|---|---|
| Comptroller of the Household | |
| In office 2 March 1874 – 4 February 1879 | |
| Monarch | 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 | Lord Henry Richard Charles Somerset 7 December 1849 Kingstown, County Dublin |
| 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, PC, DL, JP (7 December 1849 – 10 October 1932) was a British Conservative politician and composer of popular music. He served as Comptroller of the Household under Benjamin Disraeli between 1874 and 1879.
Early life
[edit]Somerset was born at the Salt Hill Hotel, Kingstown, County Dublin,[1] the second son of Henry Somerset, 8th Duke of Beaufort, by his wife Lady Georgiana Charlotte Curzon, daughter of Richard Curzon-Howe, 1st Earl Howe. He was the brother of Henry Somerset, 9th Duke of Beaufort, and Lord Arthur Somerset.
Career
[edit]Somerset was elected at a by-election in 1871 as Member of Parliament (MP) for Monmouthshire, and held the seat until he stood down at the 1880 general election.[2][3] When the Conservatives came to power in 1874 under Benjamin Disraeli, he was sworn of the Privy Council[4] and appointed Comptroller of the Household,[5] a post he held until 1879.[6] Apart from his political career he was also a Deputy Lieutenant of Monmouthshire and a justice of the peace for Herefordshire and Monmouthshire.
Personal life
[edit]Somerset married Lady Isabella Caroline Somers-Cocks,[7] 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.[8][9]
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.[10] 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.[11] 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.[12] They had no issue.
Lady Henry died in March 1921. Somerset remained a widower until his death in Florence in October 1932, aged 82.[13]
Poetry and music
[edit]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 Uranian verse".[14] He was also a composer of several songs including A song of sleep (Ricordi, 1903). His setting to music of Christina Rossetti's Echo enjoyed considerable success when it was published by Chappell & Co. c. 1900.[13]
References
[edit]- ^ "Births". Hampshire Advertiser. 15 December 1849. p. 8. Retrieved 6 September 2024.
- ^ Craig, F. W. S. (1989) [1977]. British parliamentary election results 1832–1885 (2nd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. p. 529. 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.
- ^ "Victoria Embankment Gardens – Lady Henry Somerset". 7 February 2016.
- ^ https://www.exploringsurreyspast.org.uk/themes/subjects/womens-suffrage/suffrage-biographies/lady-henry-somerset-1851-1921/ [bare URL]
- ^ 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
External links
[edit]| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
- 1849 births
- 1932 deaths
- People from Dún Laoghaire
- Conservative Party (UK) MPs for Welsh constituencies
- Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
- UK MPs 1868–1874
- UK MPs 1874–1880
- Younger sons of dukes
- Somerset family
- English justices of the peace
- Welsh justices of the peace
- Heirs presumptive
- LGBTQ members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom
- 19th-century English LGBTQ people
- 20th-century English LGBTQ people
- English gay politicians
- LGBTQ nobility