Henry Manners, 8th Duke of Rutland explained

Honorific-Prefix:His Grace
The Duke of Rutland
Honorific-Suffix:KG TD
Order1:Lord Lieutenant of Leicestershire
Term Start1:1900
Term End1:1925
Monarch1:Victoria
Edward VII
George V
Predecessor1:The Earl Howe
Successor1:Sir Arthur Hazlerigg
Birth Name:Henry John Brinsley Manners
Birth Place:Mayfair, London
Death Place:St James's, London
Nationality:British
Parents:John Manners, 7th Duke of Rutland
Catherine Marley

Henry John Brinsley Manners, 8th Duke of Rutland, (16 April 1852 – 8 May 1925), styled Marquess of Granby between 1888 and 1906, was a British peer and Conservative politician.[1]

Early life and education

Rutland was born at Upper Brook Street, Grosvenor Square, Mayfair,[2] the only surviving child of Lord John Manners by his first wife, Catherine Marley, daughter of Colonel George Marley of Belvedere House, County Westmeath, Ireland. Just before Rutland's second birthday, his mother died aged 23 from childbirth complications, weeks after giving birth to a daughter, Edith Katharine Mary, who lived only 12 days.[3] [4]

In 1862, his father remarried to Janetta Hughan. He had four half-siblings from his father's second marriage, including Lord Edward Manners and Lord Cecil Manners. He gained the courtesy title of Marquess of Granby in 1888 when his father succeeded his elder brother in the dukedom.[5]

He was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge.[1]

Career

From 1885–88, Rutland was principal private secretary to the Prime Minister Marquess of Salisbury.[1]

In 1888, when his father inherited the Dukedom and took his place in the House of Lords, Rutland succeeded him as Member of Parliament for Melton, a seat he held until 1895. In 1896, he was summoned to the House of Lords through a writ of acceleration in his father's subsidiary title of Baron Manners of Haddon.

In 1906, he succeeded his father as eighth Duke of Rutland.[1]

He was appointed Honorary Colonel of the 1st Volunteer Battalion of the Leicestershire Regiment in 1897.[6] He served as Lord Lieutenant of Leicestershire from November 1900 until his death in 1925, and was also President of the North British Academy of Arts at its inauguration and for many years. In 1918 he was made a Knight Companion of the Garter.

Marriage and issue

Rutland married Violet, daughter of Colonel the Hon. Charles Lindsay, on 25 November 1882. They had five children,[5] though their two youngest were likely fathered by other men:

Rutland died in May 1925, aged 73, and was succeeded in the dukedom by his second and only surviving son, John. The Duchess of Rutland died in December 1937, aged 81.[9]

Coat of arms

Crest:On a Chapeau Gules turned up Ermine a Peacock in its pride proper
Coronet:A Coronet of a Duke
Escutcheon:Or two Bars Azure a Chief quarterly of the last and Gules, in the first and fourth, two Fleur-de-lis, and in the second and third, a Lion passant guardant, all Or
Supporters:On either side a Unicorn Argent armed, maned, tufted and unguled Or
Motto:Pour Y Parvenir ("So as to accomplish it")
Orders:The Garter circlet;
motto: Honi soit qui mal y pense (Shame be to him who thinks evil of it).

Notes and References

  1. News: Obituary: The Duke of Rutland . . 9 May 1925. 8.
  2. News: Births. . 28 September 2024 . . 17 May 1852 . 8.
  3. News: Death of Lady John Manners . 28 September 2024 . . 20 April 1854 . 6.
  4. News: Deaths . 28 September 2024 . . 28 March 1854 . 7.
  5. Book: Burke . Sir Bernard . Burke . Ashworth P. . Bernard Burke . A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Peerage and Baronetage, the Privy Council, Knightage, and Companionage . 1934 . . London . 2066 . 28 September 2024 . II . en.
  6. https://web.archive.org/web/20070715140005/http://regiments.org/regiments/uk/volmil-england/vinf-ea/le-4.htm 4th Bn Leicester Regt at Regiments.org
  7. News: Death of Lord Haddon . 28 September 2024 . York Herald . 6 October 1894 . 10.
  8. Lady Diana herself had revealed that although she was brought up as a daughter of the 8th Duke of Rutland, she was actually fathered by Harry Cust, a Lincolnshire landowner and MP. Cust is also said to have had a relationship with Margaret Thatcher's grandmother, one of his servants. (Khan, Urmee, "Allegra Huston Speaks of the Shock at Discovering She was the Love Child of a Lord", The Daily Telegraph, 6 April 2009.
  9. News: Obituary: Violet Duchess Of Rutland – Portraits in Pencil. . 28 December 1937. 14 .