Charles Gordon-Lennox, 7th Duke of Richmond

Charles Gordon-Lennox 1907

Garter encircled shield of arms of Charles Gordon-Lennox, 7th Duke of Richmond, KG, GCVO, as displayed on his Order of the Garter stall plate in St. George's Chapel.

Memorial, Chichester Cathedral

Styled Lord Settrington from birth, he was born at Portland Place, London, the eldest son of Charles Henry Gordon-Lennox, 6th Duke of Richmond and Frances Harriett, daughter of Algernon Frederick Greville. He was educated at Eton between 1859 and 1863. In 1860 he became known as the Earl of March after his father succeeded to the dukedom.[1]

Grand house in the South Downs, the main home of the Dukes, in a few square kilometres of land. Both remain in the family, see Goodwood House.

Lord March joined the Grenadier Guards two years later, although he retired in 1869 after he was elected Member of Parliament for West Sussex. He represented that constituency until it was abolished for the 1885 general election, when he was returned to the House of Commons for the Chichester constituency. He held his seat until 1889. Around this time, he was appointed as an Ecclesiastical Commissioner, a position he occupied until 1903.

He and his brother, Lord Algernon Gordon-Lennox, both served in the Second Boer War in South Africa, with Lord March in command of the Sussex Militia from his arrival in March 1901. He returned to England in June 1902,[2] following the end of hostilities in South Africa the previous month. For his service in the war, he was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the October 1902 South African Honours list.[3]

Lord March was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Elginshire on 27 August 1902,[4] and also served as Lord Lieutenant of Banffshire from November 1903, after his father's death.

On 27 September 1903, Gordon-Lennox succeeded his father as 7th Duke of Richmond and Lennox and 2nd Duke of Gordon (2nd creation). In 1904, King Edward VII made him a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO) and a Knight of the Order of the Garter (KG). He was Grand Master of the Sussex branch of the Freemasons from 1902.[5] He died with assets excluding family-entrusted land such as at Goodwood House where he lived (and as his forebears was a parochial and district patron). These were probated at £310,380.[6][7] His interests in the family-entrusted lands were proved at £1731 in 1929.[8] He was buried in Chichester Cathedral.

Richmond married firstly Amy Mary Ricardo (24 June 1847 – 23 August 1879), daughter of Percy Ricardo (1820–1892) of Bramley Park at Guildford in Surrey, and his wife, Matilda Mawdesley Hensley (1826–1880), daughter of John Isaac Hensley of Holborn in Middlesex. She was the sister of Colonel Horace Ricardo and of Colonel Francis Ricardo of Cookham in Berkshire. They had three sons and two daughters.[9]

After her death in August 1879, aged 32, he married secondly Isabel Sophie Craven, daughter of William George Craven, in 1882. They had two daughters. Isabel died in November 1887, aged 24. Richmond remained a widower until his death in January 1928, aged 82.

He was succeeded in the dukedom by his eldest son, Charles. Richmond's second son Lord Esmé Gordon-Lennox was a Brigadier-General in the British Army, while his third and youngest son Lord Bernard Gordon-Lennox was a Major in the Army.[1]

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by The Duke of Richmond
• Charles Gordon-Lennox, 7th Duke of Richmond