Ralph Francis Julian Stonor, 5th Baron Camoys (26 January 1884 – 3 August 1968) was an English Aristocrat and Lord of

Stonor Park Stonor Park is a historic country house and private deer park situated in a valley in the Chiltern Hills at Stonor, about north of Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire, England, close to the county boundary with Buckinghamshire. The house has a 12th ...

who married an American heiress.

Early life

Lord Camoys was born on the 26 January 1884 at

Stonor Stonor is a mostly cultivated and wooded village centred north of Henley-on-Thames in South Oxfordshire, England. It takes up part of the Stonor valley in the Chiltern Hills which rises to 120 meters above sea level within this south-east pa ...

, north of

Henley-on-Thames Henley-on-Thames ( ) is a town and civil parish on the River Thames in Oxfordshire, England, northeast of Reading, west of Maidenhead, southeast of Oxford and west of London (by road), near the tripoint of Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buc ...

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. He was the son of Francis Robert Stonor, 4th Baron Camoys (1856–1897) and the former Jessie Philippa Carew. His father was the Lord-in-Waiting to

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...

in 1886 and again from 1892 to 1895. His paternal grandparents were Hon. Francis Stonor (second son of the

Thomas Stonor, 3rd Baron Camoys Thomas Stonor, 3rd Baron Camoys (1797–1881) was a British peer, previously a member of Parliament. He was the son of another Thomas Stonor and Katherine Blundell, daughter of the art collector Henry Blundell. Career In 1817, he went to study ...

) and Eliza Peel (a daughter of

British prime minister The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern p ...

Sir Robert Peel Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet, (5 February 1788 – 2 July 1850) was a British Conservative statesman who served twice as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1834–1835 and 1841–1846) simultaneously serving as Chancellor of the Exchequer ...

). His maternal grandfather was Robert Russell Carew of Carew & Co., Ltd. and his maternal aunt, Katherine Jane Carew, was married to

Edward Bosc Sladen Sir Edward Bosc Sladen (20November 18314January 1890) was an Indian Army officer who served in India and Burma. He organised a provisional government in Upper Burma and oversaw the surrender of King Thibaw. Early life Edward was born in Madras, ...

, 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 ...

officer. He was educated at the Oratory School in London and at

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...

and served as

Attaché In diplomacy, an attaché is a person who is assigned ("to be attached") to the diplomatic or administrative staff of a higher placed person or another service or agency. Although a loanword from French, in English the word is not modified accor ...

to Madrid.Mosley, Charles, editor. ''Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes.''

Wilmington, Delaware Wilmington ( Lenape: ''Paxahakink /'' ''Pakehakink)'' is the largest city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish settlement in North America. It lies at the confluence of the Christina ...

U.S.A. 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 ...

Burke's Peerage Burke's Peerage Limited is a British genealogical publisher founded in 1826, when the Irish genealogist John Burke began releasing books devoted to the ancestry and heraldry of the peerage, baronetage, knightage and landed gentry of Great Br ...

(Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003, volume 1, page 660.

Career

Upon his father's death in 1897, he succeeded as

Baron Camoys The barony of Camoys was created twice. From 26 November 1313 to 1 April 1335 Ralph de Camoys (d.1336) was summoned to Parliament by writ, and is thereby held to have become Baron Camoys of the first creation. Ralph de Camoys (d.1336) married firs ...

and was thereafter known as Lord Camoys. Lord Camoys identified himself with the pure food reform movement and was elected Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Pure Food and Health Society. Lord Camoys was a Captain in the

Royal Flying Corp "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colors = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = , decorations ...

and, during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, was also a Captain with the Buckinghamshire

Home Guard Home guard is a title given to various military organizations at various times, with the implication of an emergency or reserve force raised for local defense. The term "home guard" was first officially used in the American Civil War, starting wi ...

from 1940 to 1945.

Personal life

On 25 November 1911, Ralph was married to American heiress, Mildred Constance Sherman (1888–1961), the daughter of

William Watts Sherman William Watts Sherman (August 4, 1842 – January 22, 1912) was a New York City businessman and the treasurer of the Newport Casino. In 1875–1876 he had the William Watts Sherman House constructed in Newport, Rhode Island. Early life ...

and the former Sophia Augusta Brown, a granddaughter of the founder of

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay ...

. Together, they were the parents of the following children:Kidd, Charles and Williamson, David. "Camoys, Baron (Stonor)(Baron E 1383)." Debrett's Peerage & Baronetage 1995. London: Debrett's Peerage Limited, 1995. p. 208, * Ralph Robert Watts ''Sherman'' Stonor (1913–1976), who succeeded his father to the barony. He married Jeanne Stourton (1913–1987), the third and youngest daughter of Captain Herbert Stourton, OBE (grandson of the 19th Baron Stourton), and his wife, Frances (daughter of the 4th Viscount Southwell). * The Hon. Pamela Sophia ''Nadine'' Stonor (1917–2005) married

Lt. Col. Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colonel. ...

Charles Pepys,

King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry The King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry (KOYLI) was a light infantry regiment of the British Army. It officially existed from 1881 to 1968, but its predecessors go back to 1755. In 1968, the regiment was amalgamated with the Somerset and Cornwall ...

, a great-grandson of the 1st

Earl of Cottenham Earl of Cottenham (), of Cottenham in the County of Cambridge, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1850 for the prominent lawyer and Whig politician Charles Pepys, 1st Baron Cottenham. ) He served as Lord Ch ...

, in 1941. They had no children. * The Hon. Mildred Sophia ''Noreen'' Stonor (1922–2012) married American heir John Rozet Drexel III (1919–2007) in 1941. John was a grandson of John R. Drexel and great-grandson of

Anthony Joseph Drexel Anthony Joseph Drexel Sr. (September 13, 1826 – June 30, 1893) was an American banker who played a major role in the rise of modern global finance after the American Civil War. As the dominant partner of Drexel & Co. of Philadelphia, he founde ...

. Lord Camoys died at his American home, Stonor Lodge in

Newport, Rhode Island Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, ...

(in the United States), on 3 August 1968. At his death, he had seven grandsons and three great-grandchildren.

Descendants

Through his son, he was the grandfather of The Hon. Julia Camoys Stonor (b. 1939), who married Donald Saunders in 1963;

Thomas Stonor, 7th Baron Camoys Ralph Thomas Campion George Sherman Stonor, 7th Baron Camoys, (16 April 1940 – 4 January 2023) was a British peer and banker who served as Lord Chamberlain of the United Kingdom from 1998 to 2000, and the first Catholic Lord Chamberlain sinc ...

(1940−2023), who married who Elisabeth Hyde Parker in 1966; The Honourable Georgina Stonor (b. 1941); The Honourable Harriet Stonor (b. 1943), who married Julian Cotterell in 1965; and The Honourable John Stonor (1946—1994), who died unmarried. Through his youngest daughter, he was the grandfather of Pamela Drexel; John Rozet Drexel IV, who married to Mary Jacqueline Astor, daughter of

John Jacob Astor VI John Jacob Astor VI (August 14, 1912 – June 26, 1992) was an American socialite, shipping businessman, and member of the Astor family. He was dubbed the "''Titanic'' Baby" for his affiliation with the RMS ''Titanic''; Astor was born four month ...

and Gertrude Gretsch; and Noreen Drexel O'Farrell.Photograph of Mrs Drexel
/ref>

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Camoys, Ralph Stonor, 5th Baron 1884 births 1968 deaths Stewards of Henley Royal Regatta 5 20th-century English nobility British Home Guard officers