Charles Gordon-Lennox, 6th Duke of Richmond


Charles Henry Gordon-Lennox, 6th Duke of Richmond, 6th Duke of Lennox, 1st Duke of Gordon,, styled Earl of March until 1860, was a British landowner and Conservative politician.

Background and education

Born at Richmond House, London, he was the eldest son of Charles Lennox, 5th Duke of Richmond, and his wife Lady Caroline Paget, eldest daughter of Field Marshal Henry Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey.
He was educated at Westminster School before going up to Christ Church, Oxford, and played for Oxford University, being awarded Hon. DCL in 1870.
Commissioned into the Royal Horse Guards in 1839, he served as Aide-de-Camp to the Duke of Wellington from 1842 until 1854. Born with the surname Lennox, when his father inherited the Gordon estates from his uncle, the family took the additional surname Gordon-Lennox, by Royal Licence dated 9 August 1836.
Landowner of 286,000 acres mostly in Banff, Aberdeen and Inverness, in Sussex he owned 17,000 acres. By 1883, the Duke of Richmond had an income of £80,000 a year from his English and Scottish estates.

Political career

March entered politics as MP for West Sussex in 1841, and was sworn of the Privy Council in 1859. In 1860, he succeeded his father as Duke of Richmond, taking his seat in the House of Lords. He chaired the Royal Commission on Capital Punishment, which reported in 1866, and the Royal Commission on Water Supply in 1869, which reported overall planning of water supplies for domestic use had become necessary.
Invested as a Knight of the Garter in 1867, the Duke of Richmond served as a government minister in the Conservative administrations of Lord Derby, Disraeli and the Marquess of Salisbury. Recognised for his public service, in 1876, by being created Duke of Gordon and Earl of Kinrara in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, he was Chancellor of the University of Aberdeen from 1861 until his death at Gordon Castle in 1903.
Richmond served as Lord-Lieutenant of Banffshire and Chairman of West Sussex County Council, having been President of Marylebone Cricket Club in 1842.

Family

He married Frances Harriett Greville, daughter of Algernon Greville, on 28 November 1843. The Duke and Duchess had six children: