John Egerton, 6th Duke Of Sutherland
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John Sutherland Egerton, 6th Duke of Sutherland, (10 May 1915 – 21 September 2000) was a British peer from the
Egerton family The Egerton family (pronunciation: "''edge-er-ton''") is a British aristocratic family. Over time, several members of the Egerton family were made Dukes, Earls, knights, baronets and peers. Hereditary titles held by the Egerton family include th ...
. He was styled Viscount Brackley until 1944, when he became the 5th
Earl of Ellesmere Earl of Ellesmere ( ), of Ellesmere in the County of Shropshire, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1846 for the Conservative politician Lord Francis Egerton. He was granted the subsidiary title of Viscount B ...
on inheriting his father's substantive title. He inherited his ducal title in 1963 from a distant cousin.


Background and education

The son of
John Egerton, 4th Earl of Ellesmere Lieutenant-Colonel John Francis Granville Scrope Egerton, 4th Earl of Ellesmere, MVO, K.StJ (14 November 1872 – 24 August 1944) was a British hereditary peer and soldier from the Egerton family, known as Viscount Brackley before 1914. Early ...
, and Lady Violet Lambton, he was 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 ...
and
Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...
. He travelled to France with the British Expeditionary Force and was captured at St Valery in 1940. He spent four years in a prisoner of war camp. Upon his return in 1944, he succeeded his father as Earl of Ellesmere.


Career

In 1963, George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 5th Duke of Sutherland, his distant cousin "Geordie", died, leaving no immediate male heir. Egerton succeeded to the dukedom, but did not inherit the Sutherland estates or
Dunrobin Castle Dunrobin Castle is a stately home in Sutherland, in the Highland area of Scotland, that serves as the family seat of the Earl of Sutherland, Chief of Clan Sutherland. It is located north of Golspie and approximately south of Brora, overlo ...
, which went to Elizabeth Janson, Geordie's niece, who became the Countess of Sutherland. Estate duty forced the Duke to sell many pieces from the family's renowned collection of paintings and drawings. The family's wealth had shifted from landholdings to an estimated £120m collection of paintings which included Raphaels, Titians, Tintorettos, Poussins, and a large part of the famous
Orléans collection The Orleans Collection was a very important collection of over 500 paintings formed by Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, mostly acquired between about 1700 and his death in 1723. Apart from the great royal-become-national collections of Europe it is ...
from the
Palais Royal The Palais-Royal () is a former French royal palace located on Rue Saint-Honoré in the 1st arrondissement of Paris. The screened entrance court faces the Place du Palais-Royal, opposite the Louvre. Originally called the Palais-Cardinal, it was ...
in Paris. The wealth had come from the acquisitions of the third
Duke of Bridgewater Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and above sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they a ...
, who built the famous canal and passed on his mining riches, and from intermarriage.
Benjamin Disraeli Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield (21 December 1804 – 19 April 1881) was a British statesman, Conservative Party (UK), Conservative politician and writer who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He played a ...
once paid tribute to the family's "talent for absorbing heiresses". Despite the hundreds of paintings the Duke was forced to sell, he retained the Dutch masters for Mertoun. The
Scottish National Gallery The National (formerly the Scottish National Gallery) is the national art gallery of Scotland. It is located on The Mound in central Edinburgh, close to Princes Street. The building was designed in a neoclassical style by William Henry Play ...
in
Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
had a number of notable paintings in its possession on long-term loan from the Duke of Sutherland's estate, including pieces by
Titian Tiziano Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), Latinized as Titianus, hence known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italian Renaissance painter, the most important artist of Renaissance Venetian painting. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near Belluno. Ti ...
,
El Greco Doménikos Theotokópoulos (, ; 1 October 1541 7 April 1614), most widely known as El Greco (; "The Greek"), was a Greek painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance, regarded as one of the greatest artists of all time. ...
,
Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), now generally known in English as Raphael ( , ), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of paintings by Raphael, His work is admired for its cl ...
and
van Dyck Sir Anthony van Dyck (; ; 22 March 1599 – 9 December 1641) was a Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England after success in the Spanish Netherlands and Italy. The seventh child of Frans van Dyck, a wealt ...
(one of which, the ''
Venus Anadyomene ''Venus Anadyomene'' (, "Venus, Rising from the Sea") is one of the iconic representations of the goddess Venus (mythology), Venus (Aphrodite), made famous in a much-admired painting by Apelles, now lost, but described in Natural History (encycl ...
'', was bought by the gallery after his death towards inheritance tax). The Duke made it clear, by selling Bridgewater House in London, that he was abandoning metropolitan pursuits. He maintained the family horse racing tradition. A
Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...
, he took his seat in the Lords in 1945, but eschewed his right to vote or speak for more than half a century.HL Deb (6 December 1945) vol. 138. col. 401.
Retrieved 7 January 2020. He did find his political voice as a Berwickshire county councillor. The sixth duke kept a very local profile. In 1984 he sold four masterpieces to fund improving his garden for opening to the public. In 1994 he disagreed when the National Gallery of Scotland sought to rehouse some of his paintings in a new gallery in Glasgow, preferring them to be dispersed around Scotland.


Family

Sutherland married Lady Diana Percy (23 November 1917 – 16 June 1978), daughter of
Alan Percy, 8th Duke of Northumberland Alan Ian Percy, 8th Duke of Northumberland, (17 April 1880 – 23 August 1930) was a British peer, army officer, and newspaper proprietor. Military career Percy was a second lieutenant of the 2nd Volunteer Battalion the Queen's (Royal West ...
, on 29 April 1939. Following the death of his first wife, on 16 August 1979 he married Evelyn Moubray, a former interior decorator who shared his love of fishing. There were no children from either marriage.


References


Citations


Sources

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sutherland, John Egerton, 6th Duke of 1915 births 2000 deaths People educated at Eton College 6
John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...
John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...
British Army personnel of World War II British World War II prisoners of war World War II prisoners of war held by Germany Royal Armoured Corps officers Deputy lieutenants of Berwickshire
Sutherland Sutherland () is a Counties of Scotland, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area in the Scottish Highlands, Highlands of Scotland. The name dates from the Scandinavian Scotland, Viking era when t ...