The Viscount Harcourt | |
|---|---|
 Lewis Harcourt MP | |
| First Commissioner of Works | |
| In office 10 December 1905 – 3 November 1910 | |
| Monarchs | Edward VII George V |
| Prime Minister | Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman H. H. Asquith |
| Preceded by | The Lord Windsor |
| Succeeded by | The Earl Beauchamp |
| In office 25 May 1915 – 10 December 1916 | |
| Monarch | George V |
| Prime Minister | H. H. Asquith |
| Preceded by | The Lord Emmott |
| Succeeded by | Sir Alfred Mond, Bt |
| Secretary of State for the Colonies | |
| In office 3 November 1910 – 25 May 1915 | |
| Monarch | George V |
| Prime Minister | H. H. Asquith |
| Preceded by | The Earl of Crewe |
| Succeeded by | Bonar Law |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1863-01-31)31 January 1863 Nuneham Courtenay, Oxfordshire |
| Died | 24 February 1922(1922-02-24) (aged 59) Brook Street, London |
| Political party | Liberal |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 4, includingDoris Harcourt andWilliam Harcourt |
Lewis Vernon Harcourt, 1st Viscount HarcourtPC (bornReginald Vernon Harcourt; 31 January 1863 – 24 February 1922), was aBritishLiberal Party politician who held theCabinet post ofSecretary of State for the Colonies from 1910 to 1915. Lord Harcourt's nickname was "Loulou".
Harcourt was born atNuneham Courtenay,Oxfordshire, the only surviving son of politicianSir William Vernon Harcourt and his first wife, Maria Theresa Lister. He was originally christened with the name Reginald, in honour of his father's university friendReginald Cholmondeley, but whenGeorge Cornewall Lewis died just over two months after, he was rechristened with the name Lewis.[1] He was educated atEton. He studiedDoctor of Civil Law atUniversity of Oxford.[2]
He inherited thelordships of the manors ofStanton Harcourt,[3] Nuneham Courtenay,North Hinksey,Cogges,Northmoor andShifford in Oxfordshire.[4]
Harcourt was private secretary to his father, Sir William, asHome Secretary from 1880 to 1885; and again when he wasChancellor of the Exchequer in 1886, and 1892–95.[2] He wasLiberal Member of Parliament forRossendale, Lancashire, from 1904 to 1916 and served asFirst Commissioner of Works inSir Henry Campbell-Bannerman's 1905 ministry (appointed to Cabinet in 1907) and toH. H. Asquith's Cabinet between 1908 and 1910 and again between 1915 and 1916. In this role he authorised the placement inKensington Gardens of thePeter Pan statue, sculpted byGeorge Frampton, erected on 1 May 1912, and the plans for the rebuilding ofPiccadilly Circus in 1915 (eventually executed in 1923).[5]
Between 1910 and 1915, he wasSecretary of State for the Colonies under Asquith. In 1911 his home inBerkeley Square had windows smashed bysuffragettes, includingAda Wright who were imprisoned for two weeks.[6] Harcourt was raised to the peerage asViscount Harcourt, of Stanton Harcourt in the County of Oxford, in 1917.[4]
During the debate over ChancellorDavid Lloyd George's proposed "People's Budget" Harcourt was amongst its foremost critics, with Malcolm Thomson, Lloyd George's official biographer, writing that he was "the most inveterate in obstructing his proposals, while posing all the time as an ardent Radical".[7]
Harcourt acted as a Trustee of theBritish Museum,Wallace Collection, theLondon Museum, and theNational Portrait Gallery, which has a portrait of him.[4][8]
Harcourt was interested in natural history and sought to protect birds, fish and other creatures from extinction. He received anHonorary DCL fromOxford University and was also an honorary fellow of theRoyal Institute of British Architects.[8]
Port Harcourt, capital ofRivers State in southernNigeria, is named after him. When the port was established in 1912, there was much controversy about the name it should receive. In August 1913, the Governor-General of Nigeria,Sir Frederick Lugard wrote to Harcourt, then Secretary of State for the Colonies, that "in the absence of any convenient local name, I would respectfully ask your permission to call this Port Harcourt". The Secretary of State replied, "It gives me pleasure to accede to your suggestion that my name should be associated with the new Port".[9]
Harcourt's diaries contain a report that one ofQueen Victoria'schaplains,Revd Norman Macleod, made a deathbed confession repenting of his action in presiding over Queen Victoria's marriage to her servant,John Brown.[10]
On 1 July 1899, Harcourt marriedMary Ethel Burns, daughter of American banker Walter Hayes Burns and his wife, Mary Lyman (née Morgan), a sister ofJ. P. Morgan. Through her, the family acquired the famous "Harcourt emeralds".[11]
Mary, Viscountess Harcourt, was appointed aLady of Grace of the Order of St John and thenDame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE) in 1918; she died 7 January 1961.[12]
Lord and Lady Harcourt had four children:
Harcourt was known inLondon society as a sexual predator of the young of both genders. He attempted to sexually assaultDorothy Brett, the daughter ofViscount Esher (allegedly a fellowpaedophile), when she was about 15.[15] Brett wrote of him that "It is so tiresome that Loulou is such an oldroué. He is as bad with boys as with girls... he is simply a sex maniac. It isn't that he is in love. It is just ungovernable sex desire for both sexes".[16]
Harcourt died in his sleep at his London townhouse at69 Brook Street (now theSavile Club) in the early hours of 24 February 1922, aged 59.[8] He had taken an overdose of a sleeping draught, and there were rumours of suicide following accusations of sexual impropriety byEdward James, a young Etonian who later became an important collector of surrealist and other contemporary art.James's mother spread the story in society, although the accusations remained unknown by the wider public for fifty years.[17] An inquest was held as to the cause of death, which returned a verdict ofdeath by misadventure; the underlying cause being given as heart failure and sudden oedema of the lungs brought on by a dose ofBromidia, which he had been prescribed as a sleep aid. According to the coroner, who found extensive heart disease, the amount of Bromidia he had taken would not have caused death in a healthy person. According to his valet, there was only a very small amount of Bromidia left in the bottle the prior evening, which Harcourt did not take regularly.[18]
His physician, Dr Lindsay Scott, had last seen him on 30 January and testified that Harcourt was not in very good health, being weak and with an irregular heartbeat. He said that he did not expect him to die suddenly, but admitted, "I did not think he would live many years." The coroner dismissed the notion of suicide as "grotesque" given the evidence.[18] Patrick Jackson, Harcourt's biographer in theOxford Dictionary of National Biography, also noted that suicide seemed unlikely given that Harcourt was in the midst of finishing a biography on his father, Sir William, which he had commissioned fromAlfred George Gardiner. Harcourt had spent the evening prior to his death editing a recent draft and had an appointment with Gardiner the following day to discuss the project. Jackson writes, "It seems hard to believe that Harcourt would not have wished to see through to completion an enterprise over which he had exercised tight control, and which recalled for him the glorious days of political partnership with his father."[17]
A memorial service for Lord Harcourt was held on 1 March atSt Margaret's, Westminster, with Prebendary of WestminsterWilliam Carnegie officiating with the Very Rev.Albert Baillie,Dean of Windsor. Lord Harcourt was buried after a large, well-attended funeral service the same day at the parish church at Nuneham Courtney, conducted byBishop of OxfordHubert Burge,Bishop of BirminghamHenry Wakefield, and the rector Rev. Hildebrand Thomas Giles Alington. He was buried in the family vault in the churchyard.[19]
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forRossendale 1904 –1917 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | First Commissioner of Works 1905–1910 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Secretary of State for the Colonies 1910–1915 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | First Commissioner of Works 1915–1916 | Succeeded by |
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
| New creation | Viscount Harcourt 1917–1922 | Succeeded by |
