Percy Sholto Douglas, 10th Marquess of Queensberry (13 October 1868 – 1 August 1920) was a Scottish aristocrat. Marquis of Queensberry LCCN2002710471

Born in

Cummertrees Cummertrees is a coastal village and civil parish of Annandale in the historical county of Dumfriesshire in Dumfries and Galloway. It lies about inland, on the Pow Water to the northwest of Powfoot, from Dumfries and from Annan. Etymology ...

Dumfries Dumfries ( ; sco, Dumfries; from gd, Dùn Phris ) is a market town and former royal burgh within the Dumfries and Galloway council area of Scotland. It is located near the mouth of the River Nith into the Solway Firth about by road from the ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

, he was the second son of the

9th Marquess of Queensberry John Sholto Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry (20 July 184431 January 1900), was a British people, British nobleman, remembered for his atheism, his outspoken views, his brutish manner, for lending his name to the "Queensberry Rules" that fo ...

and brother of

Lord Alfred Douglas Lord Alfred Bruce Douglas (22 October 1870 – 20 March 1945), also known as Bosie Douglas, was an English poet and journalist, and a lover of Oscar Wilde. At Oxford he edited an undergraduate journal, ''The Spirit Lamp'', that carried a homoer ...

, the lover of

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...

. From the death of his elder brother Francis in 1894 until his father's death in 1900, he was styled Viscount Drumlanrig.

Career

In his youth Douglas served in the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

as a midshipman, then in the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

as 2nd lieutenant in the 3rd (Militia) Battalion of the

King's Own Scottish Borderers The King's Own Scottish Borderers (KOSBs) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, part of the Scottish Division. On 28 March 2006 the regiment was amalgamated with the Royal Scots, the Royal Highland Fusiliers (Princess Margaret's O ...

from 1889 to 1891. He went to

Kalgoorlie Kalgoorlie is a city in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, located east-northeast of Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway. It is sometimes referred to as Kalgoorlie–Boulder, as the surrounding urban area includ ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, as a gold prospector during the gold rush beginning in 1893, and later managed a road house in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. He returned to London, where he engaged in some failed financial undertakings. In 1911 he went to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

where he worked as a reporter on

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

newspapers.

Dealings with his father and Oscar Wilde

Douglas, not his father's heir until his elder brother's death, had a troubled relationship with his father, who once called him "that so-called skunk of a son of mine". The

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

ninth Marquess disowned him for marrying a clergyman's daughter in 1893 before going to Australia, but effected a reconciliation when he returned. During the Oscar Wilde trials in 1895, his father assaulted him on a London street, leading to both men being bound over to keep the peace for £500 (worth at least £29,945 in 2005).
National Archives currency converter figure (based on year 1890) In 1900 his dying father spat on him when he came to visit.Article on 9th Marquess by John Davis. Three weeks following their father's funeral, the new Marquess and Lord Alfred visited Wilde in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, where the Anglo-Irish Wilde recalled that they were "in deep mourning and the highest spirits. The EnglishNote the brothers were of Scottish blood but Lord Alfred Douglas was England-born. are like this." He dissipated what remained of the family fortune in less than eighteen months and was sued for bankruptcy in December 1901.

Family

The Marquess was married twice: *Firstly, on 11 September 1893, to Anna Maria (known as "Minnie"), daughter of the Reverend Thomas Walters, Vicar of Royston near

Launceston, Cornwall Launceston ( or , locally or , kw, Lannstevan; rarely spelled Lanson as a local abbreviation) is a town, ancient borough, and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is west of the middle stage of the River Tamar, which c ...

. She was born in 1866 and died on 25 April 1917, leaving issue a daughter and two sons: :*Dorothy Madeline Douglas, born 5 July 1894. Married, 1924, Esmond Brasnell Palmer on 4 Oct 1924 The Garrison Church, Saint Andrew, Jamaica. :* Francis Archibald Kelhead Douglas, born 17 January 1896, died 27 April 1954 :*Cecil Charles Douglas, born 27 December 1898, died 26 February 1981 *Secondly, on 4 December 1918, Mary Louise, daughter of Richard Bickel of

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

, Wales, and widow of Ernest Morgan. The couple had no children and she died 4 April 1956. The Marquess died on 1 August 1920 in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

, aged 51, and was succeeded as 11th Marquess by his elder son. He was buried in England at

Kensal Green Cemetery Kensal Green Cemetery is a cemetery in the Kensal Green area of Queens Park in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London, England. Inspired by Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, it was founded by the barrister George Frederic ...

, London.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Queensberry, Percy Douglas, 10th Marquess of 1868 births 1920 deaths Burials at Kensal Green Cemetery Marquesses of Queensberry