The Earl of Albemarle | |
---|---|
Under-Secretary of State for War | |
In office 4 March 1878 –21 April 1880 | |
Monarch | Victoria |
Prime Minister | The Earl of Beaconsfield |
Preceded by | The Earl Cadogan |
Succeeded by | The Earl of Morley |
In office 26 June 1885 –28 June 1886 | |
Monarch | Victoria |
Prime Minister | The Marquess of Salisbury |
Preceded by | The Earl of Morley |
Succeeded by | The Lord Sandhurst |
Personal details | |
Born | William Coutts Keppel 15 April 1832 London,England |
Died | 28 August 1894 62) | (aged
Political party | |
Spouse | Sophia MacNab (m. 1855) |
Children |
|
Parents |
|
Lieutenant-Colonel William Coutts Keppel, 7th Earl of Albemarle, KCMG , PC , MP, ADC (15 April 1832 - 28 August 1894), styled Viscount Bury between 1851 and 1891, was a British soldier and politician. He served in the British Army before entering Parliament in 1857. Initially a Liberal, he served as Treasurer of the Household between 1859 and 1866 in the Liberal administrations headed by Lord Palmerston and Lord Russell. He later switched to the Conservatives and held office as Under-Secretary of State for War under Lord Beaconsfield between 1878 and 1880 and under Lord Salisbury between 1885 and 1886.
Lord Albemarle was sixth in direct line of descent from King Charles II, and he was the great-great-grandfather of Queen Camilla.
Keppel was born in London, England on 15 April 1832. He was the only son of General George Keppel, 6th Earl of Albemarle, by his wife Susan Coutts Trotter, daughter of Sir Coutts Trotter, 1st Baronet of Westville.
He was educated at Eton. He became known by the courtesy title Viscount Bury when his father succeeded in the earldom of Albemarle in 1851. [1]
Keppel became an ensign and lieutenant in the 43rd (Regiment of) Foot in 1843, a lieutenant in the Scots Guards in 1848 and an Aide-de-camp to Lord Frederick FitzClarence in India in 1853. From 1854 until 1856, he was Superintendent of Indian Affairs in Canada. [1]
He raised the 21st Middlesex Rifles Volunteer Corps (Civil Service Rifles) in 1860.
Initially a Liberal, Lord Bury was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Norwich in 1857, [2] and later represented Wick Burghs from 1860 to 1865 [3] and Berwick-upon-Tweed from 1868 to 1874. [4] In 1859 he was sworn of the Privy Council [5] and appointed Treasurer of the Household of Queen Victoria, under Lord Palmerston, [6] a post he held until 1866, the last year under the premiership of Lord Russell. [7] In 1870, he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George. [8] On 6 September 1876 he was summoned to the House of Lords through a writ of acceleration in his father's barony of Ashford. [9]
Two years later Lord Bury was appointed Under-Secretary of State for War in Lord Beaconsfield's Conservative administration which he remained until the government fell in 1880. In 1881, he became a Volunteer Aide-de-Camp (ADC) to the Queen. He was once again Under-Secretary of State for War from 1885 to 1886 under Lord Salisbury.
He wrote a history of the American colonization called Exodus of the Western Nations (1865), A Report on the Condition of the Indians of British North America, and was the principal author, with George Lacy Hillier, of the Cycling volume of the Badminton Library (1887). In 1891 he succeeded his father in the earldom. [1]
Lord Albemarle married Sophia Mary MacNab at Dundurn Castle, Hamilton, Canada, on 15 November 1855. MacNab was the daughter of Allan MacNab, a Joint Premier of the Province of Canada, and a descendant of Loyalist Ephraim Jones. [10] Together, they had ten children: [11]
Lord Albemarle was received into the Roman Catholic Church on Easter Sunday, 13 April 1879. He died in August 1894, aged 62, of paralysis, and was buried at Quidenham in Norfolk. His eldest son Arnold succeeded in the earldom. The Countess of Albemarle died in April 1917, aged 84. [1]
Earl of Albemarle is a title created several times from Norman times onwards. The word Albemarle is derived from the Latinised form of the French county of Aumale in Normandy, other forms being Aubemarle and Aumerle. It is described in the patent of nobility granted in 1697 by William III to Arnold Joost van Keppel as "a town and territory in the Dukedom of Normandy."
Gilbert Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, 2nd Earl of Minto,, styled as Viscount Melgund between 1813 and 1814, was a British diplomat and Whig politician.
Nathaniel Clements, 2nd Earl of Leitrim, KP PC (Ire), styled The Honourable from 1783 to 1795, and then Viscount Clements to 1804, was an Irish nobleman and politician.
Orlando George Charles Bridgeman, 3rd Earl of Bradford, PC, DL, styled Viscount Newport between 1825 and 1865, was a British courtier and Conservative politician. In a ministerial career spanning over thirty years, he notably served as Lord Chamberlain of the Household between 1866 and 1868 and as Master of the Horse between 1874 and 1880 and again between 1885 and 1886.
William Charles Keppel, 4th Earl of Albemarle, GCH, PC, briefly styled Viscount Bury between May and October 1772, was a British Whig politician.
General James Alexander St Clair-Erskine, 3rd Earl of Rosslyn PC, DL, styled Lord Loughborough from 1805 to 1837, was a Scottish soldier and Tory politician. A General in the British Army, he also held political office as Master of the Buckhounds between 1841 and 1846 and again in 1852 and as Under-Secretary of State for War in 1859.
Frederick Lygon, 6th Earl Beauchamp PC DL, styled The Honourable Frederick Lygon between 1853 and 1866, was a British Conservative politician.
Thomas Egerton, 2nd Earl of Wilton, GCH, PC, known as Thomas Grosvenor until 1814, was a British nobleman and Tory politician. He served as Lord Steward of the Household in 1835 in Sir Robert Peel's first government.
Alice Frederica Keppel was an aristocrat, British society hostess and a long-time mistress of King Edward VII.
Lady Mary Rachel Pepys, DCVO was a lady-in-waiting to Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent, from 1943 to 1968. She was the eldest child of Henry Fitzalan-Howard, 15th Duke of Norfolk and his wife, Gwendolen Constable-Maxwell, 12th Lady Herries of Terregles.
George Keppel, 3rd Earl of Albemarle KG PC, styled Viscount Bury until 1754, was a British general and nobleman. He is best known for his decisive victory over the Spanish during capture of Havana in 1762, as part of the Seven Years' War.
Frederick Keppel was a Church of England clergyman, Bishop of Exeter.
George Keppel MVO was a British army officer and the husband of Alice Keppel, the mistress of King Edward VII. Keppel was a descendant of King Charles II, and was also the great grandfather of Queen Camilla of the United Kingdom.
General George Thomas Keppel, 6th Earl of Albemarle,, styled The Honourable from birth until 1851, was a British soldier, Liberal politician and writer.
John William Montagu, 7th Earl of Sandwich PC, styled Viscount Hinchingbrooke from 1814 to 1818, was a British peer and Conservative politician. He served under Lord Derby as Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms in 1852 and as Master of the Buckhounds between 1858 and 1859.
Rufus Arnold Alexis Keppel, 10th Earl of Albemarle, known as Viscount Bury from 1968 to 1979, is a British designer.
Arnold Allan Cecil Keppel, 8th Earl of Albemarle,, styled Viscount Bury from 1891 to 1894, was a British soldier, courtier and Conservative politician.
Walter Egerton George Lucian Keppel, 9th Earl of Albemarle, was a British nobleman and soldier, styled Viscount Bury from 1894 to 1942.
William Craven, 2nd Earl of Craven DL, styled Viscount Uffington until 1825, was a British peer.
Edward Southwell, 20th Baron de Clifford was a British politician.