Somerset Struben de Chair (22 August 1911 – 5 January 1995) was an English author, politician, and poet. He edited several volumes of the memoirs of

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

Early and personal life

De Chair was the younger son of Admiral Sir

Dudley Rawson Stratford de Chair Admiral Sir Dudley Rawson Stratford de Chair (30 August 1864 – 17 August 1958) was a senior Royal Navy officer and later Governor of New South Wales. Early life and career De Chair was born on 30 August 1864 in Lennoxville, Province of ...

, KCB, KCMG, MVO, and Enid, daughter of Henry William Struben, of

Transvaal Transvaal is a historical geographic term associated with land north of (''i.e.'', beyond) the Vaal River in South Africa. A number of states and administrative divisions have carried the name Transvaal. * South African Republic (1856–1902; af, ...

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 ...

. The de Chair family were of

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...

origin, descending from Rene de la Chaire, whose grandson, Jean Francois, Councillor to Charles IX, was created a Marquis in 1600 by Henry IV. The family became English gentry through generations of clergymen. He married firstly, on 8 October 1932, Thelma Grace (1911–1974), daughter of Harold Dennison Arbuthnot, of Merristwood Hall,

Worplesdon Worplesdon is a village NNW of Guildford in Surrey, England and a large dispersed civil parish that includes the settlements of: Worplesdon itself (including its central church area, Perry Hill), Fairlands, Jacobs Well, Rydeshill and Wood S ...

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

. They had two sons: Rodney Somerset and Peter Dudley, and divorced in 1950. He married secondly, in 1957, Mrs (June) Carmen Appleton, daughter of A. G. Bowen, of

Brabourne Brabourne is a village and civil parish in the Ashford district of Kent, England. The village centre is east of Ashford town centre. Geography The village originated around the village church and this area is now usually referred to as Eas ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. They had two sons: Rory and Somerset Carlo, and divorced in 1957. In 1958 de Chair married his third wife, Mrs Margaret Patricia Manlove, daughter of K. E. Field-Hart; they had a daughter, Teresa Loraine Aphrodite (who married Sir Toby Clarke, 6th Baronet). The third marriage ended in divorce in 1974, and that year he married his fourth wife, Lady Juliet Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, only child of

Peter Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, 8th Earl Fitzwilliam William Henry Lawrence Peter Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, 8th Earl Fitzwilliam, DSO (31 December 1910 – 13 May 1948), styled Viscount Milton before 1943, was a British soldier, nobleman, and peer, with a seat in the House of Lords. Early life The ...

, who had divorced

Victor Hervey, 6th Marquess of Bristol Victor Frederick Cochrane Hervey, 6th Marquess of Bristol (6 October 1915 – 10 March 1985), was a British aristocrat, hereditary peer and businessman. He was a member of the House of Lords, Chancellor of the International Monarchist League, ...

in 1972. Somerset and Lady Juliet had a daughter, Helena, who married

Jacob Rees-Mogg Jacob William Rees-Mogg (born 24 May 1969) is a British politician serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for North East Somerset since 2010. Now a backbencher, he served as Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council ...

. The hurdler Sir Charles Lawrence Somerset Clarke, 7th Baronet is his grandson and the Member of Parliament

Theo Clarke Theodora Roosevelt Clarke (born 4 August 1985) is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Stafford since the 2019 general election. Prior to her political career, she worked in the arts industry ...

is his granddaughter.

Career

Somerset de Chair was educated at

The King's School, Parramatta The King's School is an Education in Australia#Non-government schools, independent Anglican Church of Australia, Anglican, Pre-school education, early learning, primary school, primary and secondary school, secondary day and boarding school, boardi ...

in New South Wales between 1923 and 1930 before attending

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 ...

. He was Conservative MP for

South West Norfolk South West Norfolk is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Liz Truss, a Conservative, who was prime minister of the United Kingdom from September to October 2022. Constituency profile This is ...

between 1935 and 1945, losing his seat by 53 votes. He was one of the Conservatives who voted against the government in the

Norway Debate The Norway Debate, sometimes called the Narvik Debate, was a momentous debate in the British House of Commons from 7 to 9 May 1940, during the Second World War. The official title of the debate, as held in the ''Hansard'' parliamentary archive, ...

in May 1940. He then served as a Parliamentary Private Secretary in 1942–44. De Chair returned to Parliament as MP for Paddington South from 1950 to 1951. Since he had been a cadet in the

Officers' Training Corps The Officers' Training Corps (OTC), more fully called the University Officers' Training Corps (UOTC), are military leadership training units operated by the British Army. Their focus is to develop the leadership abilities of their members whilst ...

at Oxford, De Chair qualified for a commission as a

Reserve Reserve or reserves may refer to: Places * Reserve, Kansas, a US city * Reserve, Louisiana, a census-designated place in St. John the Baptist Parish * Reserve, Montana, a census-designated place in Sheridan County * Reserve, New Mexico, a US vi ...

Second Lieutenant Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank. Australia The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until ...

of the Life Guards in 1938. He was mobilised on 24 August 1939, a few days before the United Kingdom's entry into

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 ...

. He served as an

intelligence officer An intelligence officer is a person employed by an organization to collect, compile or analyze information (known as intelligence) which is of use to that organization. The word of ''officer'' is a working title, not a rank, used in the same way a ...

with the 4th Cavalry Brigade during the

Anglo-Iraqi War The Anglo-Iraqi War was a British-led Allied military campaign during the Second World War against the Kingdom of Iraq under Rashid Gaylani, who had seized power in the 1941 Iraqi coup d'état, with assistance from Germany and Italy. The c ...

and the Syrian Campaign where he was wounded on 21 June 1941. Later service was with the

General Staff A military staff or general staff (also referred to as army staff, navy staff, or air staff within the individual services) is a group of officers, enlisted and civilian staff who serve the commander of a division or other large military un ...

with the rank of Acting

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

Writings

De Chair wrote historical non-fiction, a number of now largely neglected novels, one play, three collections of poetry, and several works of autobiography. He also edited several volumes of the memoirs of

in English.

Houses and art

De Chair was known for his extravagant taste and lived in a series of large country houses. He lived between 1944 and 1949 at

Chilham Castle Chilham Castle is a Jacobean manor house and keep in the village of Chilham, between Ashford and Canterbury in the county of Kent, England. The keep is of Norman origin and dates to 1174; the manor house was completed in 1616 for Sir Dudley Di ...

and leased

Blickling Hall Blickling Hall is a Jacobean stately home situated in 5,000 acres of parkland in a loop of the River Bure, near the village of Blickling north of Aylsham in Norfolk, England. The mansion was built on the ruins of a Tudor building for Sir Henry ...

from the

Marquess of Lothian Marquess of Lothian is a title in the Peerage of Scotland, which was created in 1701 for Robert Kerr, 4th Earl of Lothian. The Marquess of Lothian holds the subsidiary titles of Earl of Lothian (created 1606), Earl of Lothian (created again 1 ...

. He owned St Osyth's Priory in

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

from 1954 until his death in 1995, and also bought

Bourne Park House Bourne Park House is a Queen Anne style country house on Bourne Park Road, between Bishopsbourne and Bridge near Canterbury in Kent. Built in 1701, it has been listed Grade I listed on the National Heritage List for England since 1954. An 18th ...

with his last wife, Lady Juliet Wentworth-Fitzwilliam.

Bibliography

;Fiction *''Enter Napoleon'' (1934) *''Red Tie in the Morning'' (1936) *''The Teetotalitarian State'' (1947) *''The Dome of the Rock'' (1948) *''The Story of a Lifetime'' (1954) *''Bring Back the Gods'' (1962) *''Friends, Romans, Concubines'' (1973) *''The Star of the Wind'' (1974) *''Legend of the Yellow River'' (1979) ;Non-fiction *''The Impending Storm'' (1930) *''Divided Europe'' (1931) *''The Golden Carpet'' (1943) *''The Silver Crescent'' (1943) *''Mind on the March'' (1945) ;Edited and translated *''The First Crusade'' (1945) *''Napoleon's Memoirs'' (1945) *''Napoleon's Supper at Beaucaire'' (1945) *''Julius Caesar's Commentaries'' (1951) *''Napoleon on Napoleon'' (1991) ;Edited *''The Sea is Strong'' (1961) *''Getty on Getty'' (1989) ;Autobiographies *''Buried Pleasure'' (1985) *''Morning Glory'' (1988) *''Die? I Thought I'd Laugh'' (1993) ;Drama *''Peter Public'' (1932) ;Poetry collections *The Millennium (1949) *Collected Verse (1970) *Sounds of Summer (1992)

References

*
everything2.com

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:De Chair, Somerset 1911 births 1995 deaths 20th-century British dramatists and playwrights 20th-century English poets 20th-century English novelists Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford British Army personnel of World War II Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies English autobiographers English translators French–English translators People educated at The King's School, Parramatta Royal Horse Guards officers UK MPs 1935–1945 UK MPs 1950–1951 20th-century English translators

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...