The Duke of Sutherland | |
|---|---|
 The Duke of Sutherland,c. 1865 | |
| Lord Lieutenant of Sutherland | |
| In office 1861–1892 | |
| Preceded by | The Duke of Sutherland |
| Succeeded by | The Duke of Sutherland |
| Member of Parliament forSutherland | |
| In office 1852–1861 | |
| Preceded by | Sir David Dundas |
| Succeeded by | Sir David Dundas |
| Personal details | |
| Born | George Granville William Sutherland-Leveson-Gower (1828-12-19)19 December 1828 Hamilton Place, London, England |
| Died | 22 September 1892(1892-09-22) (aged 63) Dunrobin Castle, Sutherland, Scotland |
| Spouses | |
| Relations | SeeLeveson-Gower family |
| Children | George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, Earl Gower Cromartie Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 4th Duke of Sutherland Francis Mackenzie Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl of Cromartie Lady Florence Chaplin Lady Alexandra Sutherland-Leveson-Gower |
| Parent(s) | George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 2nd Duke of Sutherland Lady Harriet Howard |
| Education | Eton College |
| Alma mater | King's College London |
George Granville William Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 3rd Duke of Sutherland,KG, FRS (19 December 1828 – 22 September 1892), styledViscount Trentham until 1833,Earl Gower in 1833 andMarquess of Stafford between 1833 and 1861, was a British politician from theLeveson-Gower family.
Sutherland was born on 19 December 1828 atHamilton Place, London. He was the son ofGeorge Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 2nd Duke of Sutherland andLady Harriet Elizabeth Georgiana Howard.[1]
He was educated atEton College andKing's College London.
Sutherland wasLiberal[1]Member of Parliament forSutherland 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 TsarAlexander II of Russia in 1856, hosted the public visit byGaribaldi to Britain in 1864, attended the opening of theSuez Canal in 1869, and accompanied the Prince of Wales (laterEdward VII) on his state visit to India in 1876.[1]
He wasLord Lieutenant of Cromarty from 1852 until the role was abolished in 1891, andLord Lieutenant of Sutherland from 1861 until his death.[1]
Sutherland hostedUlysses S. Grant at Dunrobin when the former presidentvisited Scotland in 1878. He later chaired a committee that organised charitable work to help those involved with the Turko-Russian and Zulu wars.[2]
Sutherland was Colonel of the Sutherland Regiment of Highland Volunteers from 1864 to 1882, and of the20th Middlesex Rifle Volunteer Corps (Railway Rifles) in 1867. He was awarded Honorary Membership of theInstitution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland in 1859.[3] He was madeKG in 1864, andFRS in 1870. He was a Knight Grand Cross of theOrder of the Redeemer of Greece.[1]
The Third Duke played a key role in the early history of theHighland Railway, being a founder board member of the company and contributing extensively towards theSutherland Railway, building theDuke of Sutherland's Railway out of his own pocket and also supporting theSutherland and Caithness Railway. The Highland Railway operated these lines, absorbing them in 1884.
He was President of theMont Cenis Railway Company which built the firstFell railway and operated it from 1868–1871 to provide a temporary route over the Alps for rail passengers fromCalais toBrindisi until the completion of theFréjus Rail Tunnel.[4]
He married, firstly,Anne Hay-Mackenzie (1829–1888), later created Countess of Cromartie in her own right, on 27 June 1849, atCliveden House inBuckinghamshire. Together, they had five children:[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 theBishop of Florida,Edwin Garner Weed, officiating.[7] causing a scandal as the conventional minimum period between the death of a spouse and remarriage being one year.[8][9] Mary was the daughter of Rev.Richard Michell, DD,[10] and the widow of Captain Arthur Kindersley Blair, formerly of the71st 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.[11]
The 3rd Duke of Sutherland died, aged sixty-three, atDunrobin Castle, and was buried on 29 September 1892 atTrentham inStaffordshire. He was succeeded in his titles by his eldest surviving son,Cromartie. Their second,Francis, had succeeded to his wife's titles as the 2ndEarl of Cromartie upon her death in 1888.[12]
He owned nearly 1,000,000 acres, with most holdings in Sutherland in addition to 17,000 acres in Salop and 12,000 in Stafford.[13]
Shortly before his death, Sutherland effectively disinherited his natural heirs and tried to leave all his money to his second wife, who was later found guilty of destroying documents and was imprisoned for six weeks. The family later made a substantial settlement in her favour, enabling her to buildCarbisdale Castle between 1906 and 1917.[14] Prior to this, she had resided atSutherland Grange atDedworth adjoiningWindsor inBerkshire. Sutherland's widow, known as Duchess Blair, married thirdly on 12 November 1896 (sep 1904) as his second wifeSir Albert Kaye Rollit (1842–1922), MP forIslington South. She enjoyed an income of £100,000 until her death according to one source.[15]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
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| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forSutherland 1852–1861 | Succeeded by |
| Honorary titles | ||
| Preceded by | Lord Lieutenant of Cromarty 1853–1891 | Office abolished |
| Preceded by | Lord Lieutenant of Sutherland 1861–1892 | Succeeded by |
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
| Preceded by | Duke of Sutherland 1861–1892 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
