Francis Henry Manners, 4th Baron Manners MC (21 July 1897 – 25 November 1972) was a British soldier, landowner, and peer, a member of the House of Lords from 1927 until his death.

Life

Manners was the second son of

John Manners-Sutton, 3rd Baron Manners John Thomas Manners-Sutton (15 May 1852 – 19 August 1927) was a British nobleman. He is known for an 1881 wager, when Manners wagered that he could buy, train, and ride to victory a horse in the Grand National, and succeeded. Background and l ...

, and his wife Constance Edwina Adelaide Hamlyn-Fane, a daughter of

Henry Hamlyn-Fane Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Edward Hamlyn-Fane (5 September 1817 – 27 December 1868), known as Henry Fane until 1861, was a British soldier and Conservative politician. Background Born Henry Fane, he was the eldest son of Reverend Edward Fane, ...

. But their older son John Neville Manners was killed in September 1914 in the First World War, leaving Manners as the heir to his father’s peerage and his mother’s estate at Avon Tyrrell in

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

. Educated at

Eton Eton most commonly refers to Eton College, a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. Eton may also refer to: Places *Eton, Berkshire, a town in Berkshire, England *Eton, Georgia, a town in the United States *Éton, a commune in the Meuse depa ...

, Manners was a cadet in the

Officers' Training Corps The University Officers' Training Corps (UOTC), also known as the Officers' Training Corps (OTC), are British Army reserve units, under the command of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, which recruit exclusively from universities and focus on ...

, and on 23 July 1915 he was commissioned into the

Grenadier Guards The Grenadier Guards (GREN GDS) is the most senior infantry regiment of the British Army, being at the top of the Infantry Order of Precedence. It can trace its lineage back to 1656 when Lord Wentworth's Regiment was raised in Bruges to protect ...

as a Second Lieutenant; during the war he rose to the rank of Captain. He was aide-de-camp to

Arthur Asquith Brigadier General Arthur Melland Asquith, (24 April 1883 – 25 August 1939) was a senior officer of the Royal Naval Division, a Royal Navy land detachment attached to the British Army during the First World War. His father, H. H. Asquith, was ...

, who on 30 April 1918 married his sister, Betty Constance Manners. On 4 March 1920 Manners’s mother died, followed on 19 August 1927 by his father, when he inherited a seat in the

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

. In 1933 he was appointed as a Justice of the Peace and in 1939 as a Deputy Lieutenant for

. He fought in the Second World War, rising to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the

Hampshire Regiment The Hampshire Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, created as part of the Childers Reforms in 1881 by the amalgamation of the 37th (North Hampshire) Regiment of Foot and the 67th (South Hampshire) Regiment of Foot. The re ...

and being awarded the

Military Cross The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level until 1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) Other ranks (UK), other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth of ...

. His house was requisitioned during the War, and after it ended Manners decided not to return to live in it. In 1949 he gave the house to a charitable trust, the National Association of Girls' Clubs and Mixed Clubs. Manners was elected to

Hampshire County Council Hampshire County Council (HCC) is the upper-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Hampshire in England. The council was created in 1889. The county council provides county-level services to eleven of the thirteen districts geo ...

. In 1948 he was Chairman of its Welfare Services Sub-Committee, and was still a county councillor in 1961. By 1968, he had been succeeded in this role by his wife. In 1968, Manners was living on his estate at Tyrrell's Ford,

Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...

,''

Debrett's Peerage Debrett's () is a British professional coaching company and publisher and authority on etiquette and behaviour, founded in 1769 with the publication of the first edition of ''The New Peerage''. The company takes its name from its founder, John ...

'' (Debrett's 1968), p. 737 a large 18th century house standing in ten acres of grounds. On his death in 1972, Manners was succeeded by his eldest son, John.''

Burke's Peerage Burke's Peerage Limited is a British genealogical publisher, considered an authority on the order of precedence of noble families and information on the lesser nobility of the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1826, when the Anglo-Irish genea ...

'', volume 2 (2003), p. 2592

Marriage and children

In 1921, Manners married Mary Gascoyne-Cecil, a daughter of Lord William Cecil and a granddaughter of prime minister

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (; 3 February 183022 August 1903), known as Lord Salisbury, was a British statesman and Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom three times for ...

. Her mother was Lady Florence Mary Bootle-Wilbraham, a daughter

Edward Bootle-Wilbraham, 1st Earl of Lathom Edward Bootle-Wilbraham, 1st Earl of Lathom (12 December 1837 – 19 November 1898) known as The Lord Skelmersdale between 1853 and 1880, was a British Conservative Party (UK), Conservative politician. He was a member of every Conservative admi ...

. They had three sons, John, Thomas, and Richard, and a daughter, Patricia Anne. At the outbreak of the Second World War, the register of the

National Registration Act 1939 The National Registration Act 1939 ( 2 & 3 Geo. 6. c. 91) was an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom. The initial National Registration Bill was introduced to Parliament as an emergency measure at the start of the Second World War. The ac ...

recorded the household at Avon Tyrrell. Lady Florence Cecil was living with her daughter and son-in-law, and there were some fifteen servants, including two cooks and a kitchenmaid, two gardeners, a chauffeur, three housemaids, and a dairyman.

Avon Tyrrell, Avon Tyrrell Stables, Avon Tyrrell Gardens
ancestry.co.uk, accessed 13 July 2022

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Manners, Francis Manners, 4th Baron 1897 births 1972 deaths 4 Deputy lieutenants of Hampshire Grenadier Guards officers

Francis Francis may refer to: People and characters *Pope Francis, head of the Catholic Church (2013–2025) *Francis (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Francis (surname) * Francis, a character played by YouTuber Boogie2 ...

Members of Hampshire County Council People educated at Eton College Recipients of the Military Cross Royal Hampshire Regiment officers 20th-century British landowners