Francis Henry Manners, 4th Baron Manners MC (21 July 1897 – 25 November 1972) was a British soldier, landowner, and peer, a member of the House of Lords from 1927 until his death.

Life

Manners was the second son of

John Manners-Sutton, 3rd Baron Manners John Thomas Manners-Sutton (15 May 1852 – 19 August 1927) was a British nobleman. He is known for an 1881 wager, when Manners wagered that he could buy, train, and ride to victory a horse in the Grand National, and succeeded. Background and l ...

, and his wife Constance Edwina Adelaide Hamlyn-Fane, a daughter of Henry Hamlyn-Fane. But their older son

John Neville Manners John Neville Manners (6 January 1892 – 1 September 1914) played cricket for Eton College in Fowler's match in 1910, and died in the early weeks of the First World War on the retreat from Mons. Poem LIV of '' The Muse in Arms'' by William Grenf ...

was killed in September 1914 in the First World War, leaving Manners as the heir to his father’s peerage and his mother’s estate at

Avon Tyrrell Avon Tyrrell is an historic manor within the parish of Sopley, Hampshire. It is situated within the New Forest, near Christchurch. The present manor house was built in 1891 by John Manners-Sutton, 3rd Baron Manners (1852–1927). Avon Tyrrell ...

in Hampshire. Educated at

Eton Eton most commonly refers to Eton College, a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. Eton may also refer to: Places *Eton, Berkshire, a town in Berkshire, England * Eton, Georgia, a town in the United States * Éton, a commune in the Meuse dep ...

, Manners was a cadet in the Officers' Training Corps, and on 23 July 1915 he was commissioned into the Grenadier Guards as a Second Lieutenant; during the war he rose to the rank of Captain. He was aide-de-camp to

Arthur Asquith Brigadier General The Honourable Arthur Melland Asquith, (24 April 1883 – 25 August 1939) was a senior officer of the Royal Naval Division, a Royal Navy land detachment attached to the British Army during the First World War. His father, H. H ...

, who on 30 April 1918 married his sister, Betty Constance Manners. On 4 March 1920 Manners’s mother died, followed on 19 August 1927 by his father, when he inherited a seat in the House of Lords. In 1933 he was appointed as a

Justice of the Peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

and in 1939 as a Deputy Lieutenant for Hampshire. He fought in the Second World War, rising to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the Hampshire Regiment and being awarded the Military Cross. His house was requisitioned during the War, and after it ended Manners decided not to return to live in it. In 1949 he gave the house to a charitable trust, the National Association of Girls' Clubs and Mixed Clubs. Manners was elected to Hampshire County Council. In 1948 he was Chairman of its Welfare Services Sub-Committee, and was still a county councillor in 1961. By 1968, he had been succeeded in this role by his wife. In 1968, Manners was living on his estate at Tyrrell's Ford, Christchurch,''

Debrett's Peerage Debrett's () is a British professional coaching company, publisher and authority on etiquette and behaviour, founded in 1769 with the publication of the first edition of ''The New Peerage''. The company takes its name from its founder, John Deb ...

'' (Debrett's 1968), p. 737 a large 18th century house standing in ten acres of grounds. On his death in 1972, Manners was succeeded by his eldest son, John.'' Burke's Peerage'', volume 2 (2003), p. 2592

Marriage and children

In 1921, Manners married Mary Gascoyne-Cecil, a daughter of Lord William Cecil and a granddaughter of prime minister Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury. Her mother was Lady Florence Mary Bootle-Wilbraham, a daughter Edward Bootle-Wilbraham, 1st Earl of Lathom. They had three sons, John, Thomas, and Richard, and a daughter, Patricia Anne. At the outbreak of the Second World War, the register of the

National Registration Act 1939 The National Registration Act 1939 was an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom. The initial National Registration Bill was introduced to Parliament as an emergency measure at the start of the Second World War. The Act provided for the estab ...

recorded the household at Avon Tyrrell. Lady Florence Cecil was living with her daughter and son-in-law, and there were some fifteen servants, including two cooks and a kitchenmaid, two gardeners, a chauffeur, three housemaids, and a dairyman.

Avon Tyrrell, Avon Tyrrell Stables, Avon Tyrrell Gardens
ancestry.co.uk, accessed 13 July 2022

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Manners, Francis Manners, 4th Baron 1897 births 1972 deaths Barons in the Peerage of the United Kingdom Deputy Lieutenants of Hampshire Grenadier Guards officers

Francis Francis may refer to: People *Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State and Bishop of Rome *Francis (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters *Francis (surname) Places * Rural M ...

Members of Hampshire County Council People educated at Eton College Recipients of the Military Cross Royal Hampshire Regiment officers