George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 3rd Duke of Sutherland

Sutherland was born on 19 December 1828 at Hamilton Place, London. He was the son of George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 2nd Duke of Sutherland and Lady Harriet Elizabeth Georgiana Howard.[1]

He was educated at Eton College and King's College London.

Sutherland was Liberal[1] Member of Parliament for Sutherland from 1852 until he succeeded his father as Duke in 1861.

He took part in a number of state occasions. He was one of the British delegation to the coronation of Tsar Alexander II of Russia in 1856, hosted the public visit by Garibaldi to Britain in 1864, attended the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, and accompanied the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) on his state visit to India in 1876.[1]

He was Lord Lieutenant for the county of Cromarty from 1852 until the role was abolished in 1891, and Lord Lieutenant of Sutherland form 1861 until his death.[1]

Sutherland chaired a committee that organised charitable work to help those involved with the Turko-Russian and Zulu wars.[2]

The Third Duke played a key role in the early history of the Highland Railway, being a founder board member of the company and contributing extensively towards the Sutherland Railway, building the Duke of Sutherland's Railway out of his own pocket and also supporting the Sutherland and Caithness Railway. The Highland Railway operated these lines, absorbing them in 1884.

He was President of the Mont Cenis Railway Company which built the first Fell railway and operated it from 1868–1871 to provide a temporary route over the Alps for rail passengers from Calais to Brindisi until the completion of the Fréjus Rail Tunnel.[4]

He married, firstly, Anne Hay-Mackenzie (1829–1888), later created Countess of Cromartie in her own right, on 27 June 1849, at Cliveden House in Buckinghamshire. Together, they had five children:[5]

• George Granville Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, Earl Gower (1850–1858), who died young.[5]
• Cromartie Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 4th Duke of Sutherland (1851–1913)[5]
• Francis Mackenzie Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl of Cromartie (1852–1893)[5]
• Lady Florence Sutherland-Leveson-Gower (1855–1881), who married Henry Chaplin, 1st Viscount Chaplin and had issue.[5]
• Lady Alexandra Sutherland-Leveson-Gower (1866–1891), who died unmarried.[5]

Sutherland was estranged from his wife Anne for many years before her death in November 1888. Less than four months after her death, Sutherland married, on 4 March 1889, Mary Caroline (née Michell) Blair, with the Bishop of Florida, Edwin Garner Weed, officiating.[6] causing a scandal as the conventional minimum period between the death of a spouse and remarriage being one year.[7][8] Mary was the daughter of Rev. Richard Michell, DD,[9] and the widow of Captain Arthur Kindersley Blair, formerly of the 71st Highland Light Infantry. Blair had resigned his commission in the Highlanders in 1861 and worked as a land agent and business manager for Sutherland; Mrs. Blair became Sutherland's mistress, and although Blair's death in 1883 was officially recorded as accidental, there was considerable speculation, at the time and later, that it may have been suicide or even murder.[10]

The 3rd Duke of Sutherland died, aged sixty-three, at Dunrobin Castle, and was buried on 29 September 1892 at Trentham in Staffordshire. He was succeeded in his titles by his eldest surviving son, Cromartie. Their second, Francis, had succeeded to his wife's titles as the 2nd Earl of Cromartie upon her death in 1888.[11]

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Duke of Sutherland
• The Leveson-Gower Family
• thePeerage.com
• His second Duchess Mary Caroline