Peerage Gallery

Sir Claude and Lady Champion de Crespigny, Tatler cover

Sir Claude Champion de Crespigny, 4th Baronet (1847-1935), soldier, sportsman and adventurer, pictured on the front cover of The Tatler in 1927 beside his wife, Lady Champion de Crespigny at Champion Lodge, Maldon, Essex. Sir Claude's life reads like that of a fictional Victorian action hero. After a military career, he became expert in a number of sports. As a ballooning enthusiast he was the first man to cross the North Sea in 1883. He was also a big-game hunter, a fearless diver, canoeist, sailor and swimmer (becoming the first European to swim the Nile rapids in 1889) and as a jockey, he rode his last steeplechase at the age of 67. Unsurprisingly, his maxim in life was, 'Where there is a daring deed to be done in any part of the world, an Englishman should leap to the front to accomplish it. In 1872, he married Georgina McKerrel with whom he had five sons and four daughters. Date: 1927

© Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans

Lady Loughborough (Sheila Chisholm) with her baby

Margaret Sheila Mackellar Chisholm, daughter of Harry Chisholm of Sydney, NSW, Australia married in 1915 Francis Edward Scudamore St Clair-Erskine, Lord Loughborough, eldest son of the fifth Earl of Rosslyn who was serving in the King's Royal Rifles at the time this picture was taken. The marriage suffered from Loughborough's drinking and gambling and the couple divorced in 1926. In 1920, Albert, Duke of York, the future King George VI was linked romantically with Sheila who, at that point, was still a married woman. She married secondly in 1928, Sir John Millbanke, eleventh baronet (d. 1947) and thirdly, Prince Dimitri Romanoff of Russia in 1954. She died in 1969. Pictured in The Tatler with her elder son, Anthony Hugh Francis Harry St. Clair-Erskine, the future 6th Earl of Rosslyn (born 18th May 1917, died 1977). Date: 1917

© Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans

Lady Elcho and her children

Lady Violet Catherine Manners, Lady Charteris, Lady Elcho (1888-1971), second daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Rutland, wife of Captain Hugo Francis Charteris, Lord Elcho, eldest son of the Earl of Wemyss pictured with her two little sons, the Hon. Francis David Charteris (born 1912) and the Hon. Martin Michael Charles Charteris (born 1913). Lord Elcho, who held a commission with the Gloucestershire Yeomanry at the time this picture was taken, was killed in action on 23 April 1916. Francis (1912-2008) became 12th Earl of Wemyss. Violet was the sister of well-known socialite Lady Diana Manners (Lady Diana Cooper). Date: 1918

© Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans