William John Lydston Poulett, 7th Earl of Poulett

William John Lydston Poulett, 7th Earl Poulett (11 September 1883 – 11 July 1918) was an English peer and

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. Educated at

Cheltenham College ("Work Conquers All") , established = , closed = , type = Public school Independent School Day and Boarding School , religion = Church of England , president = , head_label = Head , head = Nicola Hugget ...

and

Trinity Hall, Cambridge Trinity Hall (formally The College or Hall of the Holy Trinity in the University of Cambridge) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. It is the fifth-oldest surviving college of the university, having been founded in 1350 by ...

, he was the son of William Poulett, 6th Earl Poulett, by his third wife, Rosa, a daughter of Alfred Hugh de Melville."POULETT, 7th Earl"
in ''Who Was Who'', online edition by Oxford University Press, 2014, accessed 3 August 2016 He was known by the courtesy title of Viscount Hinton until on the death of his father in 1899 when he inherited the earldom of Poulett and an estate at

Hinton St George Hinton St George is a village and parish in Somerset, England, situated outside Crewkerne, south west of Yeovil in the South Somerset district. The village has a population of 442. It has a wide main street lined with hamstone cottages, some t ...

, Somerset, centering on Hinton House. However, the inheritance of the earldom was disputed by William Turnour Thomas Poulett, a son of his father's first wife, whom the 6th Earl believed had been fathered by another man. On 27 July 1903, on a report from the Committee of Privileges, 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 ...

determined the dispute in favour of Poulett, as the undisputed son of the 6th Earl. In 1908 Lord Poulett married Sylvia Lilian Storey, the daughter of Fred Storey, an actor, dancer, and scene-painter. The bride was herself an actress and

Gaiety girl Gaiety Girls were the chorus girls in Edwardian musical comedies, beginning in the 1890s at the Gaiety Theatre, London, in the shows produced by George Edwardes. The popularity of this genre of musical theatre depended, in part, on the beautifu ...

. They had one son George Amias FitzWarrine Poullet, Viscount Hinton (1909–1973), and one daughter, Lady Bridget Elizabeth Felicia Henrietta Augusta Poulett (1912–1975). Poulett was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the

Royal Welch Fusiliers The Royal Welch Fusiliers ( cy, Ffiwsilwyr Brenhinol Cymreig) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, and part of the Prince of Wales' Division, that was founded in 1689; shortly after the Glorious Revolution. In 1702, it was designate ...

and transferred to the

Royal Horse Artillery The Royal Horse Artillery (RHA) was formed in 1793 as a distinct arm of the Royal Regiment of Artillery (commonly termed Royal Artillery) to provide horse artillery support to the cavalry units of the British Army. (Although the cavalry link r ...

. He died on 11 July 1918 of

Spanish influenza The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, commonly known by the misnomer Spanish flu or as the Great Influenza epidemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case was ...

and was succeeded by his eight-year-old son, George Poulett, Viscount Hinton. After his death, his widow became engaged to Major Percy Howard Hansen, but the marriage never took place, which was thought to be because of the financial consequences for the Countess. However, she had a daughter with Hansen, Phoebe Amie Sybil Poulett (born 1922), who died unmarried in 1948."Poulett, Phoebe A S" in Register of Deaths for the Kensington registration district, volume 5c, p. 917

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Lady Bridgett Poulett (1912-1975)
at National Gallery {{DEFAULTSORT:Poulett, William John Lydston 1883 births 1918 deaths Deaths from the Spanish flu pandemic in England Alumni of Trinity Hall, Cambridge People educated at Cheltenham College Royal Horse Artillery officers Royal Welch Fusiliers officers 7 William, 7th Earl British Army personnel of World War I British military personnel killed in World War I 20th-century English nobility