Lord Henry Somerset

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.

Background[]

Somerset was 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.^[1]

Political career[]

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.^[1]

Family[]

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, Henry Charles Somers Augustus (1874–1945), but their marriage collapsed after a few years because of Lord Henry's infatuation with a seventeen-year-old boy. 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.^[8] She died in March 1921. Somerset remained a widower until his death in October 1932, aged 82.

Somerset's only son, Henry Charles Somers Augustus Somerset (1874–1945), married twice. The first wife, Lady Katherine, was 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.^[1] The second wife, who he married on 28 January 1932, was 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. They had no issue.

Music[]

Somerset is the author of Songs of adieu (1889) and 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.

References[]

External links[]

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Lord Henry Somerset

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