Francis Archibald Douglas, Viscount Drumlanrig
Francis Archibald Douglas, Viscount Drumlanrig (3 February
1867 – 18 October 1894), also 1st Baron Kelhead in his own
right, was a Scottish nobleman and Liberal politician.
Born at 8 Chesterfield Street, Mayfair, London, Drumlanrig was
the eldest son of John
Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry, by his first wife
Sibyl, daughter of Alfred Montgomery. As the heir apparent of
the Marquess, he used the courtesy title Viscount Drumlanrig
from 1856 until his death. He was educated at Harrow and at the
Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst and served as Lieutenant in
the 2nd Battalion of the Coldstream Guards from 1887 to 1893.
Drumlanrig later served as private secretary to the Liberal
politician Lord Rosebery. Owing to Rosebery's patronage, on 22
June 1893 he was created Baron Kelhead, of Kelhead in the County
of Dumfries, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. This gave him
his own seat in the House of Lords, unlike his father, whose
titles were all in the Peerage of Scotland. In July 1893 he was
appointed a Lord-in-Waiting by Rosebery.
Lord Queensberry
had served in Parliament from 1872 to 1880 as a representative
peer, but in 1880 he refused, as an atheist, to take the
religious oath of allegiance to the Queen. He was not allowed to
take his seat and was never again chosen as representative peer
by the Scottish nobles. Drumlanrig's accession to Parliament as
the 1st Baron Kelhead precipitated a bitter dispute between him
and Queensberry, and also between Queensberry and Rosebery, who
became Prime Minister in 1894.
On October 18, 1894,
sixteen months after his ennoblement, Drumlanrig died at
Quantock Lodge, Bridgwater, Somerset from injuries received
during a shooting party. The inquest returned a verdict of
"accidental death", but it was also a rumoured suicide or
homicide. He was buried in the family burial ground at Kinmount,
Dumfriesshire. He was unmarried and his younger brother Lord
Percy Douglas became heir to his father's titles. It was
speculated at the time, and evidence suggests that Drumlanrig
may have had a homosexual relationship with Rosebery. It has
been further suggested that Queensberry had threatened to expose
the Prime Minister's supposed proclivities if his government did
not vigorously prosecute Oscar Wilde for Wilde's relationship
with Drumlanrig's younger brother,
Lord Alfred Douglas. Rosebery was, by most accounts, happily
married until the death of his wife in 1890, though gossip that
Rosebery was homosexual or bisexual was indeed widespread.
Queensberry believed, as he put it in a letter, that "Snob
Queers like Rosebery" had corrupted his sons, and he held
Rosebery indirectly responsible for Drumlanrig's death.
The Roseberry affair
In 1892, William Gladstone became Prime Minister for the fourth and
last time. The Foreign Secretary in his administration was Archibald
Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery. Rumours abound as to Rosebery's
sexuality; although married with four children, it was often rumoured
that he was bisexual. Whatever the truth of these rumours, there is no
doubt that he made Francis Douglas his protégé. He was introduced to
Rosebery around 1892 and, in spite of any obvious qualifications,
Rosebery appointed him to be his private secretary. Seeking to advance
his young friend, Rosebery obtained for him the position of a
Lord-in-Waiting to Queen Victoria. To qualify for this role, Francis
needed to be a peer in his own right and he was accordingly created
Baron Kelhead in June 1893.
Francis' father, the hot-headed Marquess of Queensberry and later
bane of Oscar Wilde, was furious when his son was given entry into the
House of Lords. Because Queensberry held no English titles, he had to
rely upon being elected as a representative peer of Scotland in order to
sit in the Lords. Although he had been a representative peer between
1872 and 1880, his fellow peers declined to re-elect him in 1880, due to
his publicly professed atheism. Between 1880 and 1893, Queensberry found
himself embroiled in a number of scandals, further details of which can
be found at the foot of the page containing details of his peerage. When
he heard of Rosebery's plan to elevate his son to the House of Lords,
his reaction was typically violent. He wrote angry letters to Gladstone
and Rosebery. He even wrote to the Queen, complaining of Rosebery's 'bad
influence' on his son, which was probably an oblique accusation of
homosexuality.
Soon after Francis' promotion, the Marquess pursued Rosebery to
Bad Homburg in Germany where Rosebery was holidaying with the Prince of
Wales. Queensberry, armed with a dog whip, was found lurking near
Rosebery's hotel and the next day the local police chief was able to
report to Rosebery that Queensberry had 'found it advisable to depart
this morning with the 7 o'clock train for Paris.' However, news of the
attempted assault started tongues wagging about the nature of the
relationship between Rosebery and Lord Kelhead.
During the summer of 1894, Francis became engaged to a young
woman named Alix Ellis. In October of that year, he accepted an
invitation for a weekend's shooting at Quantock Lodge, near Bridgwater,
the home of Alix's uncle, Edward Stanley (MP for Somerset West 1882-1885
and Bridgwater 1885-1906). On 19 October, while out with his fellow
shooters, he went into the next field. After a few minutes, his
companions heard a shot and, hurrying into the field, found Francis dead
from a gunshot wound. At the subsequent inquest, the coroner recorded a
verdict of accidental death, although public opinion was widely in
favour of suicide.
Having lost one son in circumstances surrounded by rumours of
homosexuality, it is possible that Queensberry was determined not to
lose another, which may explain his implacable persecution of Oscar
Wilde six months later.
Any contributions will be
gratefully accepted
Errors and Omissions
|
|
The Forum
|
|
What's new?
|
|
We are looking for your help to improve the accuracy of The Douglas
Archives.
If you spot errors, or omissions, then
please do let us know
Contributions
Many articles are stubs which would benefit from re-writing.
Can you help?
Copyright
You are not authorized to add this page or any images from this page
to Ancestry.com (or its subsidiaries) or other fee-paying sites
without our express permission and then, if given, only by including
our copyright and a URL link to the web site.
|
|
If you have met a brick wall
with your research, then posting a notice in the Douglas Archives
Forum may be the answer. Or, it may help you find the answer!
You may also be able to help others answer their queries.
Visit the
Douglas Archives Forum.
2 Minute Survey
To provide feedback on the website, please take a couple of
minutes to complete our
survey.
|
|
We try to keep everyone up to date with new entries, via our
What's New section on the
home page.
We also use
the Community
Network to keep researchers abreast of developments in the
Douglas Archives.
Help with costs
Maintaining the three sections of the site has its costs. Any
contribution the defray them is very welcome
Donate
Newsletter
If you would like to receive a very occasional newsletter -
Sign up!
Temporarily withdrawn.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
