Lord Arthur Pelham-Clinton (23 June 1840 – 18 June 1870), known as Lord Arthur Clinton, was an English aristocrat and Liberal Party politician. A member of parliament (MP) for three years, he was notorious for involvement in the homosexual scandal and trial of Boulton and Park.

Early life

Clinton was the son of Henry Pelham-Clinton, 5th Duke of Newcastle and Lady Susan Harriet Catherine Hamilton. He had three brothers and a sister, Lady Susan Vane-Tempest; she became a mistress of future King Edward VII of the United Kingdom in 1864, when he was the 23 year-old Prince of Wales. His parents divorced in 1850, following the scandal when his mother eloped with her lover, Horatio Walpole, by whom she had an illegitimate son, Horatio. In 1860, his mother would marry for a second time a Belgian, Jean Alexis Opdebeck. Clinton was educated at Woodcote School, Reading and then Eton College; he entered the Royal Navy in 1854 at the age of 14 and served during the Crimean War in the

Baltic Campaign of 1854 The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...

. He then served in the Naval Brigade during the

Indian Mutiny The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against the rule of the British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown. The rebellion began on 10 May 1857 in the fo ...

and was present at the

Capture of Lucknow The Capture of Lucknow (Hindi: लखनऊ का क़ब्ज़ा, ur, ) was a battle of Indian rebellion of 1857. The British recaptured the city of Lucknow which they had abandoned in the previous winter after the relief of a besieg ...

. He was promoted to Lieutenant in 1861. In 1863, he was appointed to serve on HMS ''Revenge''. On 10 November 1864, his brother Lord Albert was court-martialled on board HMS ''Victory'' at Portsmouth. Charges of ''"desertion and breaking his parole"'' were upheld by the court and Lord Albert Pelham-Clinton was sentenced to be dismissed from the navy, although ''The Times'' reported that the case referred to Lord Arthur in error.

Member of Parliament

Clinton was elected as an MP for

Newark Newark most commonly refers to: * Newark, New Jersey, city in the United States * Newark Liberty International Airport, New Jersey; a major air hub in the New York metropolitan area Newark may also refer to: Places Canada * Niagara-on-the ...

at the general election in July 1865,Robert Henry Mair, "Debrett's Illustrated House of Commons and the Judicial Bench", 1867, p.44 a seat previously held by his brother

Henry Pelham-Clinton, 6th Duke of Newcastle Henry Pelham Alexander Pelham-Clinton, 6th Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne (25 January 1834 – 22 February 1879) was an English nobleman, styled Lord Clinton until 1851 and Earl of Lincoln until he inherited the dukedom in 1864. Pelham-Clinton was ...

. He was declared bankrupt on 12 November 1868, with debts and liabilities reported to total £70,000. (£ when adjusted for inflation) and stood down as a member of parliament at the subsequent, 1868 general election, which took place between 17 November and 7 December. His successor was the philanthropist, Edward Denison.

Homosexuality

In 1870, Clinton was living with Ernest Boulton, an established cross-gender actor known to the stage and friends as "Stella."Pearsall (1971) 461-8 Clinton was still, nominally, a naval officer, but he was placed on the retired Navy List on 1 April 1870. Boulton and

Frederick William Park Thomas Ernest Boulton and Frederick William Park were two Victorian cross-dressers. In 1870, while in drag, they were arrested after leaving a London theatre. They were charged with conspiracy to commit sodomy, a crime that carried a maximum pr ...

often appeared in public in female dress and, on 28 April 1870, they were arrested and later charged "with conspiring and inciting persons to commit an unnatural offence" with Clinton and others.Robert Aldrich, Garry Wotherspoon, "Who's who in gay and lesbian history: from antiquity to World War II", Routledge, 2001, , p.66

Death

Clinton officially died on 18 June 1870, the day after receiving his subpoena for testifying in the trial of Boulton and Park. Ostensibly the cause of death was

scarlet fever Scarlet fever, also known as Scarlatina, is an infectious disease caused by ''Streptococcus pyogenes'' a Group A streptococcus (GAS). The infection is a type of Group A streptococcal infection (Group A strep). It most commonly affects childr ...

but it was more probably

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...

. At the time there was considerable speculation that he had used his powerful connections – he was the godson of Prime Minister

William Gladstone William Ewart Gladstone ( ; 29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British statesman and Liberal politician. In a career lasting over 60 years, he served for 12 years as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, spread over four non-conse ...

– to flee abroad. In his book ''Fanny and Stella'', biographer Neil McKenna cites circumstantial evidence suggesting that Lord Arthur did indeed live on in exile. Boulton and Park were acquitted.

Criminal impersonation

Twelve years later, on 8 February 1882, Mary Jane Fearneaux and James Gething were arrested in Birmingham and charged with obtaining £2,000 from one man and £3,000 from another under false pretences. Fearneaux was found to have been living for some years as a man in Birmingham while claiming to be Lord Arthur Clinton, saying that the reported death was a fiction contrived by family and friends to avoid disgrace. She sometimes dressed as a woman while impersonating Clinton, while saying that this was a disguise to avoid attention after the notoriety of the Boulton and Park case. At the subsequent trial of the pair, Gething was acquitted and Fearneaux changed her plea to guilty; she was sentenced to seven years in prison.

References

;Citations ;Bibliography * *

External links

*
Lord Arthur Pelham Clinton
1861 photograph by Camille Silvy at the

National Portrait Gallery, London The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is an art gallery in London housing a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. It was arguably the first national public gallery dedicated to portraits in the world when it ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clinton, Arthur, Lord 1840 births 1870 deaths 1870s suicides People educated at Eton College UK MPs 1865–1868 Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Younger sons of dukes English LGBT politicians Suicides in England Arthur LGBT-related suicides LGBT members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom Royal Navy officers Royal Navy personnel of the Crimean War LGBT military personnel