Gordon-Lennox, Charles, 1791-1860

GORDON-LENNOX, CHARLES, 5th DUKE OF RICHMOND AND GORDON, eldest son of Charles Lennox, 4th Duke of Richmond and Lennox KG PC, Lord Lieut. Ireland and Governor-General of Canada, Gen. in the Army, and Lady Charlotte Gordon, eldest dau. of Alexander Gordon, 4th Duke of Gordon KT; grandson of Lord George Henry Lennox (qv); b. 3 Aug 1791; styled Earl of March 1806-19; adm. (Glover); left 1809; Trinity Coll. Dublin, adm. nob. 28 Oct 1809; BA 1813; Ensign, 8th Garrison Battalion 8 Jun 1809; Lieut., 13th Light Dragoons 21 Jun 1810; Capt., 92nd Foot 9 Jul 1812; 52nd Foot 8 Apr 1813; Brevet Maj., 15 Jun 1815; Brevet Lieut. -Col., 25 Jul 1816; half-pay 25 Jul 1816; ADC and Assistant Military Secretary to Duke of Wellington in Peninsular War 1810-4; wounded at Orthes; ADC to Prince of Orange at battle of Waterloo; MP Chichester 1812 – 28 Aug 1819; succ. father as 5th Duke of Richmond and Lennox 28 Aug 1819; as MP and peer a supporter of Tory governments to 1828, but opposed Catholic Emancipation and went into opposition after the passage of the Catholic Emancipation Bill in 1829; KG 13 May 1829; offered and accepted Cabinet office in the incoming Whig government Nov 1830; Postmaster-General Nov 1830 – May 1834; Privy Councillor 22 Nov 1830; resigned office over Whig government’s Irish Church policy May 1834, moving to cross-benches in House of Lords; inherited Scottish estates of his cousin 5th Duke of Gordon 1836, assuming additional surname of Gordon before Lennox, 9 Aug 1836; became a vocal advocate of agricultural protection in the 1840s, strongly opposing Sir Robert Peel’s repeal of the corn laws; Col., Sussex Militia, from 4 Dec 1819; Extra ADC to William IV 9 May 1832; Lord Lieut. of Sussex from 19 Jun 1835; Chancellor, Marischall College, Aberdeen, from 1836; FRS 2 Apr 1840; President, Royal Agricultural Society, from 1845; DL Banffshire 1846; Steward, Jockey Club 1831; horses of his won the Oaks 1827, 1845, and the One Thousand Guineas 1845; Provincial Grand Master of Freemasons, Sussex, from 1823; several details of his school life, including his fight with an overgrown bully, will be found in a Memoir of him published in 1862; Busby Trustee from 19 May 1827; m. 10 Apr 1817 Lady Caroline Paget, eldest dau. of Henry William Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey (qv); d. 21 Oct 1860. DNB.

International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons and Families - ISAAR(CPF) 2nd edition

Prepared for import into AtoM by Westminster School Archive staff, 2019-2020

Users should note that the information recorded here that is not to be found in the first two volumes of the Record of Old Westminsters and its first Supplement has been assembled from various published and manuscript sources by Hugh Edmund Pagan MA FSA, and all new resulting text is his copyright, © 2014.

The Record of Old Westminsters: A biographical list of all those who are known to have been educated at Westminster School from the earliest times to 1927, Volumes 1 & 2, compiled by G. F. Russell Barker and Alan H. Stenning, London, 1928.