Victor Henry Peter Brougham, 4th Baron Brougham and Vaux (23 October 1909 – 20 June 1967), was a British peer and politician.
Background and family
Brougham's father, Henry Brougham, was the son and heir of the
3rd Baron Brougham and Vaux, but predeceased his father, dying just 20 days before his father in May 1927. Victor Brougham succeeded to the title upon his grandfather's death on 24 May 1927.
Brougham was married three times,
#
Valerie Violet French (m. 1931, divorced 1934), granddaughter of
Sir John French
Field Marshal John Denton Pinkstone French, 1st Earl of Ypres, (28 September 1852 – 22 May 1925), known as Sir John French from 1901 to 1916, and as The Viscount French between 1916 and 1922, was a senior British Army officer. Born in Kent t ...
. They had one son, Julian, who was killed while on active service in
Malaya in 1952, at the age of 19.
# Jean Follet (m. 1935, divorced 1942). They had two sons:
Michael (b. 1938), the future 5th Baron, and David (1940–2012).
# Edith Ellaline Teichmann (m. 1942), previously married to Richard Hart-Davis. She was one of a series of society beauties photographed as classical figures by
Madame Yevonde.
Life and career
Brougham made his maiden speech in the
House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminste ...
on 8 May 1934, in a debate on Parliamentary Reform, making a strong defence of democracy, concluding "Unless our Parliamentary system adapts itself very soon to the needs of the day, and unless it consciously reforms itself so as to carry out the functions demanded of Governments in modern circumstances, it will be done away with here as surely as it has disappeared in Russia, Germany and Italy."
He fought in the Second World War and gained the rank of
2nd 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 1 ...
in the
Scots 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 E ...
. After the war, he served in the
Territorial Army, reaching the rank of
major.
Lord Brougham enjoyed gambling; in 1932, he auctioned artefacts from
Brougham Hall to pay off his debts, and in 1934, the Hall itself was sold. In August 1953, Lord Brougham was declared bankrupt after having spent more than £125 000 on gambling, failed stock market speculation and a failed attempt to become a farmer. In court, he stated that he tried to get work to repay his debts, but working as manual labour, his salary seldom exceeded £10/month, the situation had got out of hands.
[Drottningens England, Jan-Olof Olsson and Margareta Sjögren, Bonniers förlag 1953, pp. 38–39.]
Arms
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brougham and Vaux, Victor Brougham, 4th Baron
1909 births
1967 deaths
British Army personnel of World War II
4
Middlesex Regiment officers