Background
Known as Fritz, Ponsonby was the second of three sons of General Sir Henry Ponsonby and his wife the Hon. Mary Elizabeth (née Bulteel). A member of a junior branch of the Ponsonby family, he was the grandson of General Frederick Ponsonby (British Army officer), Sir Frederick Ponsonby and the great-grandson of Frederick Ponsonby, 3rd Earl of Bessborough. Arthur Ponsonby, 1st Baron Ponsonby of Shulbrede, was his younger brother. His godparents were German Emperor Frederick III, German Emperor, Frederick III and Victoria, Princess Royal, Empress Victoria.Military career
After attending Eton, Ponsonby received a commission in the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry as a second lieutenant. He transferred to the Grenadier Guards and was promoted to Lieutenant (British Army and Royal Marines), lieutenant on 2 July 1892. He was promoted to Captain (British Army and Royal Marines), captain on 15 February 1899, and served with the 3rd Battalion of his regiment in the Second Boer War. Wounded at the end of the war, he returned to the United Kingdom in April 1902. He was later promoted to major and Brevet (military), brevet lieutenant-colonel and served in the First World War. Sir John French mentioned him in despatches. He wrote the standard history: ''The Grenadier Guards in the Great War of 1914–1918''. 3 vols., published in 1920.Courtier
He also held several court positions, notably as Equerry-in-Ordinary to Queen Victoria from 1894 to 1901, as Keeper of the Privy Purse, Assistant Keeper of the Privy Purse and Private Secretary to the Sovereign, Assistant Private Secretary to Queen Victoria from 1897 to 1901, to Edward VII, King Edward VII from 1901 to 1910 and to King George V from 1910 to 1914; as Keeper of the Privy Purse from 1914 to 1935, and as Windsor Castle, Lieutenant Governor of Windsor Castle from 1928 to 1935. In 1906, Ponsonby was appointed to the Order of the Bath as a Companion (CB). In 1910, he was promoted to be a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (KCVO) and was promoted to Knight Grand Cross (GCVO) in the 1921 New Year Honours. In 1913 he was made a Grand Cross in the Order of the Griffon (Mecklenburg), Order of the Griffon of Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Mecklenburg-Strelitz. In 1914, he was sworn of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, Privy Council. In the 1935 Birthday Honours, he was raised to the peerage as Baron Sysonby, of Wonersh in the Surrey, County of Surrey.Family
Lord Sysonby married Victoria Ponsonby, Baroness Sysonby, Victoria, daughter of Colonel Edmund Hegan Kennard, on 17 May 1899, at the Guards' Chapel, Wellington Barracks. She later became a well-known cookbook author. They had three children: *Victor Alexander Henry Desmond Ponsonby (19 June 1900 – 24 November 1900) *Loelia Lindsay, Hon. Loelia Mary Ponsonby (1902–1993) *Edward Ponsonby, 2nd Baron Sysonby, Hon. Edward Gaspard Ponsonby (1903–1956) Lord Sysonby died in London in October 1935, aged 68, only four months after his elevation to the peerage, and was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium. He was succeeded in the barony by his surviving son Edward. Lady Sysonby, who died in 1955, was denied a pension by George V and was required to vacate St. James’s Palace, where she had lived with her husband throughout their married life. His autobiography ''Recollections of Three Reigns'', edited and published posthumously in 1951, is full, frank and entertaining. Nancy Mitford wrote to Evelyn Waugh that there was "a shriek on every page".Charlotte Mosley (ed.), ''The Letters of Nancy Mitford and Evelyn Waugh'' (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1996), p. 254. He also edited ''Letters of the Empress Frederick'' (1928) and published ''Sidelights on Queen Victoria'' (1930).The Ponsonby family
The Ponsonby family has played a leading role in British life for two centuries. His father was Sir Henry Ponsonby who was Private Secretary to Queen Victoria. His grandfather, Frederick Ponsonby (British Army officer), Frederick Ponsonby, was badly wounded at the Battle of Waterloo, but survived to become a British Army general. Lady Caroline Ponsonby, better known to history under her married name of Lady Caroline Lamb, was the wife of the future Prime Minister of the UK, Prime Minister Lord Melbourne and lover of the poet Lord Byron. This lady was also a key figure in Lady Caroline Lamb (film), a film – played by Sarah Miles – in 1972. The father of the two siblings, Frederick's great-grandfather, was the Frederick Ponsonby, 3rd Earl of Bessborough, 3rd Earl of Bessborough. The man wounded at Waterloo is not to be confused with another Ponsonby depicted on film, his kinsman General Sir William Ponsonby (British Army officer), William Ponsonby, whose death – possibly due to not risking his best horse in battle – at the hands of a group of lancers is an incident noted in the film 'Waterloo'. Frederick's daughter, Loelia Lindsay, Loelia, married the 2nd Duke of Westminster.Notes
References
* Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). ''Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage'' (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990, *William M. Kuhn, â