Claude Lowther
Encyclopedia
Colonel Claude William Henry Lowther (1872 – 16 June 1929) was an English
Conservative
politician
. He was the son of Francis William Lowther and Louise Beatrice de Fonblanque; Francis William was the illegitimate son of the Earl of Lonsdale
and an opera singer, and received £125,000 on the Earl's death.
Lowther was educated at Rugby School
and had a brief diplomatic career as honorary attaché at Madrid from 1894. When the Second Boer War
broke out, he joined the 8th Battalion, Imperial Yeomanry
. During a skirmish at Faber's Put on 30 March 1900, he and two troopers rescued two wounded men while under heavy Boer Fire, an act for which he was unsuccessfully recommended for the Victoria Cross
by Sir Charles Warren
.
In October 1900, at the "Khaki Election
", he was returned as Unionist
Member of Parliament
for Eskdale
. During the last months of the Boer War
on 10 July 1901, Lowther made a speech advocating extracting reparations from the Transvaal
, using mineral deposits to compensate for high British taxes needed to pay for the war.
He was defeated in 1906 by the Liberal
candidate, Geoffrey Howard
. After his defeat, he became a vigorous campaigner against socialism
and for the preservation of Empire. Lowther favoured tariff reform and "national efficiency", including state welfare. From 1908 until 1911, he was chairman of the Anti-Socialist Union
. Defeated again in Eskdale at the January 1910 election, he regained the seat in December 1910.
Aside from his political career, Lowther was also a connoisseur and a student of the theatre, and a friend of Herbert Beerbohm Tree
. Lowther's play The Gordian Knot was presented at Her Majesty's Theatre
in 1903, but was not at all successful. The episode, however, did not bring about a breach between Lowther and Tree. He bought Herstmonceux Castle
in 1911 and began restoring it in 1912. The inhabitable parts were refurnished and stocked with objets d'art.
In September 1914, he raised and equipped the 11th, 12th, and 13th Battalions of the Royal Sussex Regiment
, who became known as "Lowther's Lambs". His recruiting was highly successful, enlisting men from the South Downs
already bound to one another by community ties. However, Lowther, like most who raised service battalions, was not to command them in France. He returned to Herstmonceux, while his "Lambs" were terribly damaged in their first attack in June 1916, intended to divert attention from the offensive on the Somme.
In Parliament, he called for both military and industrial conscription
, and for the creation of a volunteer army of veterans past the age of service. Lowther followed the philosophy of Milner
in admiring the patriotic dedication of the working class.
Having announced that he would not stand again in North Cumberland, which was won unopposed in 1918 by the distantly related Christopher Lowther, he became MP for Lonsdale
. He favoured large indemnity payments from Germany, and supported the Anti-Waste League
, and, less fortunately, Horatio Bottomley
. He was among the MPs who voted to end the coalition with David Lloyd George
at the Carlton Club
meeting brought on by the Chanak Crisis
.
In the 1922 General Election he did not stand for re-election in Lonsdale on health grounds, but was a last minute nominee for Carlisle. In 1918 the Conservatives had not contested this traditionally Liberal seat, to ensure Labour did not win. The local party proposed to do the same again, but an internal coup led to Lowther's selection. In a brief but vigorous campaign he pushed the sitting Liberal into third place, and the Labour candidate took the seat. This proved to be the end of Claude Lowther's political career.
His health gradually failed, and Lowther died at his London home in 1929. After his death, the collection he had assembled at Herstmonceux was sold off, and the castle itself sold to Reginald Lawson.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
. He was the son of Francis William Lowther and Louise Beatrice de Fonblanque; Francis William was the illegitimate son of the Earl of Lonsdale
William Lowther, 2nd Earl of Lonsdale
William Lowther, 2nd Earl of Lonsdale PC, FRS , styled Viscount Lowther between 1807 and 1844, was a British Tory politician.-Background:...
and an opera singer, and received £125,000 on the Earl's death.
Lowther was educated at Rugby School
Rugby School
Rugby School is a co-educational day and boarding school located in the town of Rugby, Warwickshire, England. It is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain.-History:...
and had a brief diplomatic career as honorary attaché at Madrid from 1894. When the Second Boer War
Second Boer War
The Second Boer War was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State...
broke out, he joined the 8th Battalion, Imperial Yeomanry
Imperial Yeomanry
The Imperial Yeomanry was a British volunteer cavalry regiment that mainly saw action during the Second Boer War. Officially created on 24 December 1899, the regiment was based on members of standing Yeomanry regiments, but also contained a large contingent of mid-upper class English volunteers. In...
. During a skirmish at Faber's Put on 30 March 1900, he and two troopers rescued two wounded men while under heavy Boer Fire, an act for which he was unsuccessfully recommended for the Victoria Cross
Victoria Cross
The Victoria Cross is the highest military decoration awarded for valour "in the face of the enemy" to members of the armed forces of various Commonwealth countries, and previous British Empire territories....
by Sir Charles Warren
Charles Warren
General Sir Charles Warren, GCMG, KCB, FRS was an officer in the British Royal Engineers. He was one of the earliest European archaeologists of Biblical Holy Land, and particularly of Temple Mount...
.
In October 1900, at the "Khaki Election
United Kingdom general election, 1900
-Seats summary:-See also:*MPs elected in the United Kingdom general election, 1900*The Parliamentary Franchise in the United Kingdom 1885-1918-External links:***-References:*F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987**...
", he was returned as Unionist
Liberal Unionist Party
The Liberal Unionist Party was a British political party that was formed in 1886 by a faction that broke away from the Liberal Party. Led by Lord Hartington and Joseph Chamberlain, the party formed a political alliance with the Conservative Party in opposition to Irish Home Rule...
Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
for Eskdale
Eskdale (UK Parliament constituency)
Eskdale was a parliamentary constituency centred on the Eskdale district of north Cumberland not to be confused with the valley of Eskdale in the west of the county...
. During the last months of the Boer War
Second Boer War
The Second Boer War was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State...
on 10 July 1901, Lowther made a speech advocating extracting reparations from the Transvaal
South African Republic
The South African Republic , often informally known as the Transvaal Republic, was an independent Boer-ruled country in Southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century. Not to be confused with the present-day Republic of South Africa, it occupied the area later known as the South African...
, using mineral deposits to compensate for high British taxes needed to pay for the war.
He was defeated in 1906 by the Liberal
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
candidate, Geoffrey Howard
Geoffrey Howard (Liberal politician)
The Honourable Geoffrey William Algernon Howard JP was a British Liberal politician. He served as Vice-Chamberlain of the Household under H. H...
. After his defeat, he became a vigorous campaigner against socialism
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
and for the preservation of Empire. Lowther favoured tariff reform and "national efficiency", including state welfare. From 1908 until 1911, he was chairman of the Anti-Socialist Union
Anti-Socialist Union
The Anti-Socialist Union was a British political pressure group that supported free trade economics and opposed socialism. It was active from 1908 to 1948 with its heyday occurring before the First World War.-Formation:...
. Defeated again in Eskdale at the January 1910 election, he regained the seat in December 1910.
Aside from his political career, Lowther was also a connoisseur and a student of the theatre, and a friend of Herbert Beerbohm Tree
Herbert Beerbohm Tree
Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree was an English actor and theatre manager.Tree began performing in the 1870s. By 1887, he was managing the Haymarket Theatre, winning praise for adventurous programming and lavish productions, and starring in many of its productions. In 1899, he helped fund the...
. Lowther's play The Gordian Knot was presented at Her Majesty's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre is a West End theatre, in Haymarket, City of Westminster, London. The present building was designed by Charles J. Phipps and was constructed in 1897 for actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who established the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at the theatre...
in 1903, but was not at all successful. The episode, however, did not bring about a breach between Lowther and Tree. He bought Herstmonceux Castle
Herstmonceux Castle
Herstmonceux Castle is a brick-built Tudor castle near Herstmonceux, East Sussex, United Kingdom. From 1957 to 1988 its grounds were the home of the Royal Greenwich Observatory...
in 1911 and began restoring it in 1912. The inhabitable parts were refurnished and stocked with objets d'art.
In September 1914, he raised and equipped the 11th, 12th, and 13th Battalions of the Royal Sussex Regiment
Royal Sussex Regiment
The Royal Sussex Regiment was an infantry regiment of the British Army from 1881 to 1966. The regiment was formed as part of the Childers reforms by the amalgamation of the 35th Regiment of Foot and the 107th Regiment of Foot...
, who became known as "Lowther's Lambs". His recruiting was highly successful, enlisting men from the South Downs
South Downs
The South Downs is a range of chalk hills that extends for about across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen Valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, near Eastbourne, East Sussex, in the east. It is bounded on its northern side by a steep escarpment, from whose...
already bound to one another by community ties. However, Lowther, like most who raised service battalions, was not to command them in France. He returned to Herstmonceux, while his "Lambs" were terribly damaged in their first attack in June 1916, intended to divert attention from the offensive on the Somme.
In Parliament, he called for both military and industrial conscription
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...
, and for the creation of a volunteer army of veterans past the age of service. Lowther followed the philosophy of Milner
Alfred Milner, 1st Viscount Milner
Alfred Milner, 1st Viscount Milner KG, GCB, GCMG, PC was a British statesman and colonial administrator who played an influential leadership role in the formulation of foreign and domestic policy between the mid-1890s and early 1920s...
in admiring the patriotic dedication of the working class.
Having announced that he would not stand again in North Cumberland, which was won unopposed in 1918 by the distantly related Christopher Lowther, he became MP for Lonsdale
Lonsdale (UK Parliament constituency)
Lonsdale was a county constituency in north Lancashire. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first-past-the-post system.-Members of Parliament:...
. He favoured large indemnity payments from Germany, and supported the Anti-Waste League
Anti-Waste League
The Anti-Waste League was a political party in the United Kingdom, founded in 1921 by Lord Rothermere.The formation of the League was announced in a January 1921 edition of the Sunday Pictorial with Rothermere attacking what he saw as government waste during a time of recession. As such the party...
, and, less fortunately, Horatio Bottomley
Horatio Bottomley
Horatio William Bottomley was a British financier, swindler, journalist, newspaper proprietor, populist politician and Member of Parliament .-Early life:...
. He was among the MPs who voted to end the coalition with David Lloyd George
David Lloyd George
David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor OM, PC was a British Liberal politician and statesman...
at the Carlton Club
Carlton Club
The Carlton Club is a gentlemen's club in London which describes itself as the "oldest, most elite, and most important of all Conservative clubs." Membership of the club is by nomination and election only.-History:...
meeting brought on by the Chanak Crisis
Chanak Crisis
The Chanak Crisis, also called Chanak Affair in September 1922 was the threatened attack by Turkish troops on British and French troops stationed near Çanakkale to guard the Dardanelles neutral zone. The Turkish troops had recently defeated Greek forces and recaptured İzmir...
.
In the 1922 General Election he did not stand for re-election in Lonsdale on health grounds, but was a last minute nominee for Carlisle. In 1918 the Conservatives had not contested this traditionally Liberal seat, to ensure Labour did not win. The local party proposed to do the same again, but an internal coup led to Lowther's selection. In a brief but vigorous campaign he pushed the sitting Liberal into third place, and the Labour candidate took the seat. This proved to be the end of Claude Lowther's political career.
His health gradually failed, and Lowther died at his London home in 1929. After his death, the collection he had assembled at Herstmonceux was sold off, and the castle itself sold to Reginald Lawson.