Charles Gordon-Lennox, 5th Duke of Richmond

Charles Gordon-Lennox, 5th Duke of Richmond, KG, PC (3 August 1791  21 October 1860), of Goodwood House near Chichester in West Sussex, was a British peer, soldier and prominent Conservative politician.


The Duke of Richmond and Lennox

The Duke of Richmond, 1824.
Postmaster General
In office
11 December 1830  5 July 1834
MonarchWilliam IV
Prime MinisterThe Earl Grey
Preceded byThe Duke of Manchester
Succeeded byThe Marquess Conyngham
Personal details
Born3 August 1791 (1791-08-03)
Richmond House, Whitehall Gardens, London
Died21 October 1860 (1860-10-22) (aged 69)
Portland Place, Marylebone, London
NationalityBritish
Political partyUltra-Tories
Spouse(s)Lady Caroline Paget
(1796–1874)
Children
ParentsCharles Lennox, 4th Duke of Richmond
Lady Charlotte Gordon
Alma materTrinity College, Dublin
Arms of Charles Gordon-Lennox, 5th Duke of Richmond, KG, PC
Mural monument to Charles Gordon-Lennox, 5th Duke of Richmond, Chichester Cathedral

Origins

He was born "Charles Lennox", the son and heir of Charles Lennox, 4th Duke of Richmond (1764-1819) by his wife Lady Charlotte Gordon, the eldest child of Alexander Gordon, 4th Duke of Gordon. Until his father's death in 1819 he was styled Earl of March, a courtesy title, being one of his father's subsidiary titles.

Education

He was educated at Westminster School in London and Trinity College, Dublin.[1]

Military career

The Duke of Richmond, portrait by William Salter

As Earl of March, he served on Wellington's staff in the Peninsular War,[2] during which time he volunteered to join the 52nd (Oxfordshire) Regiment of Foot's advance storming party on the fortress of Ciudad Rodrigo.[3] He formally joined the 52nd Foot in 1813 and took command of a company of soldiers at the Battle of Orthez in 1814, where he was severely wounded; the musket-ball in his chest was never removed.[1][3] During the Battle of Waterloo (1815) he was aide-de-camp to the Prince of Orange, and following the latter's wounding, served as aide-de-camp to Wellington.[4] He was chiefly responsible for the institution in 1847 of the Military General Service Medal for all survivors of the campaigns between 1793 and 1814, considered by many belated as hitherto there had only been a Waterloo Medal. He campaigned in Parliament and also enlisted the interest of Queen Victoria.[5] Richmond himself received the medal with eight clasps.[3]

On 19 October 1817 he reformed the Goodwood Troop of Yeomanry Artillery, originally raised by the 3rd Duke in 1797. The unit supported the cavalry of the Sussex Yeomanry but was disbanded in December 1827.[6] Richmond was appointed Colonel of the Royal Sussex Light Infantry Militia on 4 December 1819, and Colonel-in-Chief of its offshoot the Royal Sussex Militia Artillery, on its formation in April 1853.[7]

Political career

Richmond sat as a Member of Parliament for Chichester between 1812 and 1819.[2] The latter year he succeeded his father in the dukedom and entered the House of Lords where he was a vehement opponent of Roman Catholic emancipation, and later was a leader of the opposition to Peel's free trade policy, as he was the president of the Central Agricultural Protection Society, which campaigned for preservation of the Corn Laws. Although a vigorous Conservative and Ultra-Tory for most of his career, Richmond's anger with Wellington over Catholic Emancipation prompted him to lead the Ultras into joining Earl Grey's reforming Whig government in 1830 (Lang, 1999).[2]

He served under Grey as Postmaster General between 1830 and 1834.[1] He was sworn of the Privy Council in 1830,[8] and in 1831 was appointed to serve on the Government Commission upon Emigration, which was wound up in 1832.[9]

Richmond was Lord Lieutenant of Sussex between 1835 and 1860 and was appointed a Knight of the Garter in 1829.[1][10]

In 1836, on inheriting the estates of his childless maternal uncle George Gordon, 5th Duke of Gordon, he was required by the terms of the bequest to assume the surname of Gordon before that of Lennox.[2][11]

Marriage and children

On 10 April 1817 he married Lady Caroline Paget (1797 – March 1874), a daughter of Henry Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey by his wife Lady Caroline Villiers, by whom he had five sons and five daughters, including:

Sons

Daughters

Death and burial

He died at Portland Place, Marylebone, London, in October 1860, aged 69 and was succeeded in the dukedom by his eldest son Charles Gordon-Lennox, 6th Duke of Richmond (1818–1903).

See also

References

  1. Lundy, Darryl. "thepeerage.com Charles Gordon-Lennox, 5th Duke of Richmond". The Peerage.
  2.  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: McNeill, Ronald John (1911). "Richmond, Earls and Dukes of". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. 22 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 307.
  3. Moorsom, W.S. Historical Record of the Fifty-Second Regiment (Oxfordshire Light Infantry), London: Richard Bentley, 1860, p. 443
  4. Georgiana, Dowager Lady De Ros. Personal Recollections of the Duke of Wellington, The Regency Library, Complimentary Issue Archived 28 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine July 2005. Originally published in Murray's Magazine 1889 Part I.
  5. Stanley C. Johnson, A Guide to Naval, Military, Air-force and Civil Medals and Ribbons, 1921, pp 57–60
  6. L. Barlow & R.J. Smith, The Uniforms of the British Yeomanry Force 1794–1914, 1: The Sussex Yeomanry Cavalry, London: Robert Ogilby Trust/Tunbridge Wells: Midas Books, ca 1979, ISBN 0-85936-183-7, p. 7.
  7. Hart's Army List, 1855.
  8. leighrayment.com Privy Counsellors 1679–1835
  9. "Emigration from the United Kingdom" (PDF). Journal of the Statistical Society of London. 1 (3): 156-157. July 1838. doi:10.2307/2337910 via JSTOR.
  10. leighrayment.com Peerage: Rendel-Robson
  11. "No. 19409". The London Gazette. 12 August 1836. p. 1441.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
George White-Thomas
James du Pre
Member of Parliament for Chichester
1812–1819
With: William Huskisson
Succeeded by
William Huskisson
Lord John Lennox
Political offices
Preceded by
The Duke of Manchester
Postmaster General
1830–1834
Succeeded by
The Marquess Conyngham
Honorary titles
Preceded by
The Earl of Egremont
Vice-Admiral of Sussex
1831–1860
Vacant
Lord Lieutenant of Sussex
1835–1860
Succeeded by
The Earl of Chichester
Peerage of England
Preceded by
Charles Lennox
Duke of Richmond
3rd creation
1819–1860
Succeeded by
Charles Gordon-Lennox
Peerage of Scotland
Preceded by
Charles Lennox
Duke of Lennox
2nd creation
1819–1860
Succeeded by
Charles Gordon-Lennox
French nobility
Preceded by
Charles Lennox
Duke of Aubigny
1819–1860
Succeeded by
Charles Gordon-Lennox
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