Charles Douglas-Home, 13th Earl of Home


Charles Cospatrick Archibald Douglas-Home, 13th Earl of Home,, styled Lord Dunglass between 1881 and 1918, was a British peer and banker. He served as Lord Lieutenant of Berwickshire from 1930 until 1951 and was the father of the British prime minister Alec Douglas-Home.

Life and career

He was born on 29 December 1873, the only son of Charles Douglas-Home, 12th Earl of Home, and Maria Grey, the daughter of Captain Charles Conrad Grey, RN. Styled Lord Dunglass, he was educated at Eton College and at Christ Church, Oxford. He subsequently served as an officer in the 3rd and 4th Battalions, the Cameronians and as Colonel in the Lanarkshire Yeomanry and was awarded the Territorial Decoration. He fought in the First World War, where he took part in the Gallipoli Campaign and was mentioned in dispatches. He succeeded to his father's earldom and subsidiary titles on 30 April 1918. He was the Governor of the British Linen Bank from 1930 to 1947. He held the office of Justice of the Peace for Glasgow and Berwickshire, and was a Captain of the Royal Company of Archers. He was invested as a Knight of the Order of the Thistle in 1930. He held the office of Lord Lieutenant of Berwickshire from 1930 until his death. He was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Law by the University of Glasgow. He died at his home The Hirsel on 11 July 1951.

Estates

In 1918, he inherited extensive property and estates from his father, including Douglas Castle, Bothwell Castle, The Hirsel and lands chiefly in Lanarkshire, Roxburghshire and Berwickshire. The following year, he was forced to sell many historic pictures and art treasures from the family collection to settle death duties. Many of the portraits had come from the famous collection of the Earl of Clarendon inherited through Lady Catherine Hyde, daughter of the 4th Earl of Clarendon and wife of the 3rd Duke of Queensberry, and the English and foreign silver was considered to be one of the most important collections to come into the market for some years.

Marriage and children

On 14 July 1902 at St Margaret's, Westminster, he married Lady Lillian Lambton, daughter of Frederick Lambton, 4th Earl of Durham. The marriage is held to have been a happy one, and the couple had seven children: