Miles Watson, 2nd Baron Manton (1899–1968), (born George Miles Watson), of
Compton Verney
Compton Verney is a parish and historic manor in the county of Warwickshire, England. The population taken at the 2011 census was 119. The surviving manor house is the Georgian mansion Compton Verney House.
Descent of the manor
The first r ...
, Warwickshire and
Plumpton Place
Plumpton Place is a Grade II* listed Elizabethan manor house in Plumpton, East Sussex, England.
Description
Plumpton Place looks onto the nearby north-facing escarpment of the South Downs, with Plumpton College (formerly Plumpton Agricultural Co ...
, East Sussex, was an English peer and racehorse breeder.
Origins
George Miles Watson was born on 21 June 1899.
He was the eldest son of
Joseph Watson, 1st Baron Manton
Joseph Watson, 1st Baron Manton (10 February 1873 – 13 March 1922) was an English industrialist from Leeds, Yorkshire.
He was chairman of Joseph Watson & Sons Ltd, soap manufacturers of Leeds, and a director of the London and North-Western ...
(1873–1922), the Leeds soap magnate, by his wife (Frances) Claire Nickols, daughter of Harold Nickols of Sandford House, Kirkstall, Leeds.
Watson had three younger brothers, Robert Fraser, Alastair Joseph, and Richard Mark Watson, all born by 1906.
He was educated at Harrow.
Succeeds father
He succeeded as 2nd Baron Manton on the death of his father in 1922.
In 1927 he sold the
Manton estate and racehorse training establishment near Marlborough, Wiltshire, which had been purchased by his father.
In 1929 he sold the
Compton Verney
Compton Verney is a parish and historic manor in the county of Warwickshire, England. The population taken at the 2011 census was 119. The surviving manor house is the Georgian mansion Compton Verney House.
Descent of the manor
The first r ...
estate to Samuel Lamb, a cotton manufacturer from Manchester. However unfortunately (with much general disapproval (see reports in The Times newspaper)) before the sale he removed the mediaeval stained glass (with heraldry of the Verney family) from the chapel, which he sold in 1931 in four lots at Christie's. Much went to the USA, although some is now in the Burrell Collection in Glasgow and in the Market Hall Museum, Warwick.
Career
In the 1920s Manton had been a jockey under National Hunt Rules. having sold his father's briefly-owned seat of Compton Verney, in 1938 he purchased
Plumpton Place
Plumpton Place is a Grade II* listed Elizabethan manor house in Plumpton, East Sussex, England.
Description
Plumpton Place looks onto the nearby north-facing escarpment of the South Downs, with Plumpton College (formerly Plumpton Agricultural Co ...
near Lewes in Sussex, where he established a racehorse stud. Hard Sauce, produced there, sired the winner of the 1958 Derby, Hard Ridden.
For the British Bloodstock Agency, he travelled to India and South America.
With his brother Robert he was a director of Newmarket Bloodstock Ltd.
Marriages and progeny
He married twice:
*Firstly on 18 April 1923, to Alethea Alys Mary Pauline Langdale,
2nd daughter and co-heiress of Lt.Col. Philip Joseph Langdale, OBE, JP, DL, of
Houghton Hall
Houghton Hall ( ) is a country house in the parish of Houghton in Norfolk, England. It is the residence of David Cholmondeley, 7th Marquess of Cholmondeley.
It was commissioned by the ''de facto'' first British Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walp ...
, Sancton, Yorkshire.
Alathea filed for divorce in 1934, which was granted in 1936.
*Secondly on 1 June 1938, he married Leila Joan Reynolds daughter of Major Philip Guy Reynolds, DSO and formerly the wife of Lt.Col. John Dane Player III (1903-1943),
of Friars Well, Wartnaby, Leicestershire, who was killed in action in the Middle East in 1943, a director of
John Player & Sons
John Player & Sons, most often known simply as Player's, was a tobacco and cigarette manufacturer based in Nottingham, England. In 1901, the company merged with other companies to form The Imperial Tobacco Company to face competition from US ma ...
tobacco manufacturers founded by his grandfather, and of
Imperial Tobacco
Imperial Brands plc (formerly Imperial Tobacco Group plc), is a British multinational tobacco company headquartered in Bristol, England. It is the world's fourth-largest international cigarette company measured by market share after Philip Mor ...
, who had cited Manton in his own divorce proceedings, starting in 1937. She became after Manton's death Lady Brownlow, having married, as his 3rd wife,
Peregrine Cust, 6th Baron Brownlow
Peregrine Francis Adelbert Cust, 6th Baron Brownlow (27 April 1899 – 28 July 1978), often known as Perry Brownlow, was a British peer and courtier. He was the son of Adelbert Salusbury Cockayne Cust, 5th Baron Brownlow, and his wife Maud B ...
of
Belton House
Belton House is a Grade I listed country house in the parish of Belton near Grantham in Lincolnshire, England, built between 1685 and 1688 by Sir John Brownlow, 3rd Baronet. It is surrounded by formal gardens and a series of avenues leading t ...
, Grantham, Lincolnshire.
Death
Manton died in June 1968 at his home Plumpton Place. On his death, the title passed to his son and only child by his first wife Alethea Langdale,
Rupert Watson, 3rd Baron Manton.
References
External links
Compton Verney House website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Manton, George Miles Watson, 2nd Baron
1899 births
1968 deaths
Barons in the Peerage of the United Kingdom
People educated at Harrow School