Lionel Sackville-West, 2nd Baron Sackville GCMG

Order of St Michael and St George

The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is an order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince Regent, later George IV of the United Kingdom, while he was acting as Prince Regent for his father, George III....

 (19 July 1827 - 3 September 1908), was a British diplomat.

Background

Sackville-West was the fourth son of George Sackville-West, 5th Earl De La Warr

George Sackville-West, 5th Earl De La Warr

George John Sackville-West, 5th Earl de la Warr PC , styled Viscount Cantelupe until 1795, was a British courtier and Tory politician.-Background:...

, by Lady Elizabeth

Elizabeth Sackville-West, Countess De La Warr

Elizabeth Sackville-West, Countess De La Warr and 1st Baroness Buckhurst was a British peeress.-Biography:...

, daughter of John Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset

John Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset

John Frederick Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset was the only son of Lord John Philip Sackville, second son of Lionel Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset. He succeeded to the dukedom in 1769 on the death of his uncle, Charles Sackville, 2nd Duke of Dorset...

. He was the younger brother of George Sackville-West, Viscount Cantelupe, Charles Sackville-West, 6th Earl De La Warr and Mortimer Sackville-West, 1st Baron Sackville

Mortimer Sackville-West, 1st Baron Sackville

Mortimer Sackville-West, 1st Baron Sackville , was a British peer and court official.Sackville-West was the fourth son of George Sackville-West, 5th Earl De La Warr, and Elizabeth Sackville, 1st Baroness Buckhurst, younger daughter and co-heir of John Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset...

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Diplomatic career

Sackville-West was Minister Plenipotentiary to Argentina from 1872 to 1878 and Ambassador to Spain from 1878 to 1881. The latter year he was appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the United States, a post he held until 1888. His retirement was due to his writing of the Murchison letter

Murchison letter

The Murchison letter was a political scandal during the United States presidential election of 1888 when Sir Lionel Sackville-West was entrapped by a political operative posing as a British expatriate.-History:...

. In 1888 he also succeeded his elder brother Mortimer in the barony of Sackville

Baron Sackville

Baron Sackville, of Knole in the County of Kent, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1876 for the Honourable Mortimer Sackville-West, with remainder, failing heirs male of his body, to his younger brothers the Hon. Lionel and the Hon. William Edward...

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Family

Lord Sackville had several children by a Spanish dancer, Josefa de la Oliva (née Durán y Ortega, known as Pepita). Soon after his death one of these, calling himself Ernest Henri Jean Baptiste Sackville-West, claimed to be a lawful son and his father's heir. He asserted that between 1863 and 1867 Sackville-West had married his mother. The case came before the English courts of law in 1909-1910, and it was decided that the children of this union were all illegitimate, as Pepita's husband, Jean Antonio Gabriel de Oliva, was alive during the whole period of his wife's connection with Sackville-West. Lord Sackville died in September 1908, aged 81, and was succeeded by his nephew, Lionel

Lionel Sackville-West, 3rd Baron Sackville

Lionel Edward Sackville-West, 3rd Baron Sackville , was a British peer.Sackville-West was the son of the Honourable William Edward Sackville-West, sixth son of George Sackville-West, 5th Earl De La Warr and Lady Elizabeth Sackville. His mother was Georgina, daughter of George Dodwell...

, who married Lord Sackville's daughter Victoria

Victoria Sackville-West, Baroness Sackville

Victoria Josefa Dolores Catalina Sackville-West, Baroness Sackville was the wife of her cousin Lionel Edward Sackville-West, 3rd Baron Sackville and the mother of writer and gardener Vita Sackville-West. The family lived mainly at Knole House, an estate that had been theirs for centuries...

. They were the parents of Vita Sackville-West

Vita Sackville-West

The Hon Victoria Mary Sackville-West, Lady Nicolson, CH , best known as Vita Sackville-West, was an English author, poet and gardener. She won the Hawthornden Prize in 1927 and 1933...

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