Gerald Wellesley, 7th Duke of Wellington


Gerald Wellesley, 7th Duke of Wellington,, styled Lord Gerald Wellesley between 1900 and 1943, was an Anglo-Irish diplomat, soldier, and architect.

Background and education

Wellesley was the third son of Lord Arthur Wellesley and Lady Arthur Wellesley. He was baptised at St. Jude's Church (Church of Ireland), Kilmainham, Dublin, on 27 September 1885. He was educated at Eton.

Career

Wellesley served as a diplomat in the Diplomatic Service in 1908. He held the office of Third Secretary in the Diplomatic Service between 1910 and 1917, and the office of Second Secretary in the Diplomatic Service between 1917 and 1919. He was invested as a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1921, and as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 1935, and was Surveyor of the King's Works of Art, 1936–43. He gained the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in 1939 in the service of the Grenadier Guards. He fought in the Second World War between 1939 and 1945. His diplomatic skills proved invaluable in dealing with the Allies.
As a somewhat elderly officer with a spinsterish manner, he earned the nickname 'The Iron Duchess.' Simon Heffer, Editor of Chips Channon's diaries Volume 3 in 2022, records that the nickname was devised by Army colleagues as he was gay.
In 1943, he succeeded his nephew, Henry, as Duke of Wellington, Earl of Mornington, and Prince of Waterloo. His nephew's other title, Duke of Ciudad Rodrigo, passed to Henry's sister Lady Anne Rhys, before she ceded it to him in 1949. He served as Lord Lieutenant of the County of London between 1944 and 1949 and as Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire between 1949 and 1960. In 1951, he was made a Knight Companion of the Order of the Garter.
In 1953 he became the first Chancellor of the University of Southampton.

Architecture projects

Among his architecture projects was the remodelling of 5 Belgrave Square, the London home of Henry "Chips" Channon, an Anglo-American member of Parliament, and of Channon's country house, Kelvedon Hall in Essex. Working with Trenwith Wills, Wellesley also remodeled Castle Hill, Filleigh, in Devon; Hinton Ampner in Hampshire; and Biddick Hall in County Durham and St Mary and St George Church, High Wycombe. Wellesley also designed the Faringdon Folly tower for Lord Berners and built Portland House in Weymouth in 1935.

Books

He was the author of the following books :
  • The Iconography of the First Duke of Wellington
  • The Diary of a Desert Journey
  • The Journal of Mrs. Arbuthnot
  • ''A Selection from the Private Correspondence of the First Duke of Wellington''

Inheritance and estates

Following the death of his brother, Wellington inherited an estate subject to a heavy tax burden. Increases in the rates of income tax during the Second World War reportedly reduced the Duke's £40,000 annual income to just £4,000 after the payment of taxes.

Wellington Museum

In 1947 the Duke gave Apsley House and its important contents to the nation with '''Wellington Museum Act'''

Family

On 30 April 1914, Wellesley married the wealthy heiress Dorothy Violet Ashton. Dorothy's mother was (Lucy) Cecilia Dunn-Gardner, who later became Countess of Scarbrough after marrying Aldred Lumley, 10th Earl of Scarbrough in 1899. Dorothy had inherited much of her father's wealth following the death of her only brother Robert C. N. Ashton in 1912. Wellesley and Dorothy had two children:
The marriage was unhappy and they separated in 1922, but never divorced. Dorothy, a poet, was a lesbian. She became the lover of Vita Sackville-West,. before becoming the lover and long-time companion of Hilda Matheson, a prominent BBC producer. Interestingly, Wellesley had been engaged to Sackville-West's former lover Violet Trefusis before marrying Dorothy. Wellesley himself was rumoured to be bisexual or homosexual, but this belief stems largely from certain effeminate mannerisms, and there is no record of any male lover.
After his wife's death in 1956, Wellesley reportedly wished to marry his widowed sister-in-law, Lady Serena James, but she did not wish to leave her marital home.
Wellesley died early in 1972. His probate was sworn in the year of his death at. He was succeeded in his titles and estates by his only son, Valerian.