Richard Luttrell Pilkington Bethell, 3rd Baron Westbury (25 April 1852 – 21 February 1930) was a British soldier and peer, a member of the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...

from 1875 until his death. Born at

Littlehampton Littlehampton is a town, seaside resort, and pleasure harbour, and the most populous civil parish in the Arun District of West Sussex, England. It lies on the English Channel on the eastern bank of the mouth of the River Arun. It is south sout ...

, the eldest of the four sons of Richard Augustus Bethell, 2nd Baron Westbury, and his wife Mary Florence Luttrell, a daughter of the Rev. Alexander Fownes Luttrell JP of

East Quantoxhead East Quantoxhead is a village in the district of Somerset West and Taunton, from West Quantoxhead, east of Williton, and west of Bridgwater, within the Quantock Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in Somerset, England. History Above the ...

, the young Bethell was commissioned into the

Scots Fusilier Guards The Scots Guards (SG) is one of the five Foot Guards regiments of the British Army. Its origins are as the personal bodyguard of King Charles I of England and Scotland. Its lineage can be traced back to 1642, although it was only placed on the ...

and became a Lieutenant. On 28 March 1875, on the death of his father, he succeeded as

Baron Westbury Baron Westbury, of Westbury, Wiltshire, Westbury in the County of Wiltshire, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 27 June 1861 for the lawyer and Liberal Party (UK), Liberal politician Richard Bethell, 1st Baron Wes ...

, of

Westbury, Wiltshire Westbury is a town and civil parish in the west of the English county of Wiltshire, below the northwestern edge of Salisbury Plain, about south of Trowbridge and a similar distance north of Warminster. Originally a market town, Westbury was kn ...

. His younger brother

Alexander Bethell Admiral Sir Alexander Edward Bethell (28 August 1855 – 13 June 1932) was a British naval officer who served as Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth of the Royal Navy. Naval career Born the second son of Richard Augustus Bethell, 2nd Baron Westbury, B ...

joined 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 ...

and rose to the rank of Vice-Admiral.''

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 ...

'', vol. 3 (2003), p. 4127 On 24 July 1882, Westbury married Lady Agatha Manners Tollemache, a daughter of William Tollemache, Lord Huntingtower, and Katharine Elizabeth Camila Burke. In 1881, she had been granted a royal warrant of precedence as the daughter of an earl. They had one son, Richard Bethell (26 April 1883 – 15 November 1929), who died before his father. The secretary of the archaeologist

Howard Carter Howard Carter (9 May 18742 March 1939) was a British archaeologist and Egyptologist who discovered the intact tomb of the 18th Dynasty Pharaoh Tutankhamun in November 1922, the best-preserved pharaonic tomb ever found in the Valley of the K ...

, he was found dead in a bed at a Mayfair club aged 46, probably smothered. After a long illness, Westbury killed himself on 21 February 1930, aged 77, by jumping out of a seventh-floor bedroom window at his apartment in

St James's St James's is a central district in the City of Westminster, London, forming part of the West End. In the 17th century the area developed as a residential location for the British aristocracy, and around the 19th century was the focus of the de ...

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. He left a note reading: "I really cannot stand any more horrors and hardly see what good I am going to do here, so I am making my exit." His death was found to be suicide while of unsound mind."Suicide of Lord Westbury – Fall from Bedroom Window",

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

, 22 February 1930, p. 17"Obituary: Lord Westbury",

, 22 February 1930, p. 4 He was succeeded by his grandson Richard Morland Tollemache Bethell, 4th Baron Westbury (1914–1961).

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Westbury, Richard Luttrell Pilkington Bethell, 3rd Baron 1852 births 1930 suicides 1930 deaths 3 Scots Guards officers Suicides by jumping in England Suicides in Westminster