Thomas William Coke, 4th Earl of Leicester (9 July 1880 – 21 August 1949), styled Viscount Coke from 1909 to 1941, was a

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

officer and

hereditary peer The hereditary peers form part of the peerage in the United Kingdom. As of April 2025, there are 800 hereditary peers: 30 dukes (including six royal dukes), 34 marquesses, 189 earls, 108 viscounts, and 439 barons (not counting subsidiary ...

Early life

Coke was the son of Thomas William Coke, 3rd Earl of Leicester, and Hon. Alice Emily White. 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 Sandhurst, he entered the

Scots Guards The Scots Guards (SG) is one of the five Foot guards#United Kingdom, 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 in the Ki ...

as a cadet, and was promoted to second lieutenant on 21 February 1900.

Military career

Coke was seconded for service in the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War (, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, Transvaal War, Anglo–Boer War, or South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer republics (the South African Republic and ...

in South Africa on 26 November 1901, and was promoted to

lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a Junior officer, junior commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations, as well as fire services, emergency medical services, Security agency, security services ...

on 10 January 1902. Following the end of the war in June 1902 he returned with most of the men of the guards regiments on board the SS ''Lake Michigan'', which arrived in Southampton in October 1902. He went on half-pay on 13 April 1905 due to illness, but returned to service on 8 November 1905. Coke was promoted to

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

on 14 March 1906. He resigned his commission on 6 March 1909, after his father succeeded to the earldom and he became heir apparent; his uncle John, then a lieutenant in the Guards, was promoted captain in his place. On 1 October 1909, he was commissioned a lieutenant in the

Norfolk Yeomanry The Norfolk Yeomanry was a volunteer cavalry ( Yeomanry) regiment of Britain's Territorial Army, accepted onto the establishment of the British Army in 1794. After seeing action in the Second Boer War, it served dismounted at Gallipoli, in Pale ...

. Made a captain in the General Reserve of Officers on 4 June 1911, he surrendered his commission in the General Reserve on 10 July 1912 to return to the Scots Guards as a captain. He served with the Guards for the duration of the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. On 1 May 1917 he was appointed an aide-de-camp.

Later life

Coke was also a Knight of the

Order of St. John The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), is a Catholic military order. It was founded in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century and had headquarters there u ...

, and a Justice of the Peace for

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

. He was a talented violinist. He succeeded his father as

Earl of Leicester Earl of Leicester is a title that has been created seven times. The first title was granted during the 12th century in the Peerage of England. The current title is in the Peerage of the United Kingdom and was created in 1837. History Earl ...

in 1941 and was appointed

Lord Lieutenant of Norfolk This is an incomplete list of people who have served as Lord Lieutenant of Norfolk. Since 1689, all Lord Lieutenants have also been Custos Rotulorum of Norfolk. * William Parr, 1st Marquess of Northampton, 1549 – *Thomas Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of S ...

in 1944. He died in 1949 and was succeeded by his elder son Thomas. A recording that his daughter, Lady Silvia, made at the age of 90 recounting the history of

Holkham Hall Holkham Hall ( or ) is an 18th-century English country house, country house near the village of Holkham, Norfolk, England, constructed in the Neo-Palladian style for Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester (fifth creation), Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of ...

is a British Library exemplar of the conservative

received pronunciation Received Pronunciation (RP) is the Accent (sociolinguistics), accent of British English regarded as the Standard language, standard one, carrying the highest Prestige (sociolinguistics), social prestige, since as late as the beginning of the 2 ...

accent of English.

Family

Leicester was married on 2 December 1905 to Marion Gertrude Trefusis, daughter of Colonel

the Hon. ''The Honourable'' (Commonwealth English) or ''The Honorable'' (American English; see spelling differences) (abbreviation: ''Hon.'', ''Hon'ble'', or variations) is an honorific style that is used as a prefix before the names or titles of cert ...

Walter Trefusis and Lady Mary Montagu-Douglas-Scott. (Colonel Trefusis was the son of the 19th Lord Clinton and Lady Mary was the daughter of the 5th Duke of Buccleuch). They had five children: * Hon. Angela Mary Coke (born 6 November 1906, died December 1906) * Major Thomas William Edward Coke, 5th Earl of Leicester (born 16 May 1908, died 3 September 1976) * Lady Silvia Beatrice Coke (born 19 October 1909, died October 2005) * Hon. David Arthur Coke (born 4 December 1915,

killed in action Killed in action (KIA) is a casualty classification generally used by militaries to describe the deaths of their personnel at the hands of enemy or hostile forces at the moment of action. The United States Department of Defense, for example, ...

9 December 1941) * Lady Katharine ''Mary'' Coke (7 March 1920 – 6 October 1993);

Woman of the Bedchamber In the Royal Household of the United Kingdom the term Woman of the Bedchamber is used to describe a woman (usually a daughter of a peer) attending either a queen regnant or queen consort, in the role of lady-in-waiting. Historically the term 'Gen ...

Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon (4 August 1900 – 30 March 2002) was Queen of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 to 6 February 1952 as the wife of King George VI. She was al ...

. The Trefusis connection reverberated in a later generation. The eldest daughter of the 5th Earl became engaged to Johnnie Althorp, later father to

Diana, Princess of Wales Diana, Princess of Wales (born Diana Frances Spencer; 1 July 1961 – 31 August 1997), was a member of the British royal family. She was the first wife of Charles III (then Prince of Wales) and mother of Princes William, ...

; his father objected to the match on the grounds of "mad blood", a reference to the institutionalised relatives of the queen, and the engagement was broken off. (Much later, the director of the

Murdoch Children's Research Institute The Murdoch Children's Research Institute (MCRI) is an Australian paediatric medical research institute located in Melbourne, Victoria, affiliated with the Royal Children's Hospital and the University of Melbourne. The institute has six resear ...

thought that a

genetic disease A genetic disorder is a health problem caused by one or more abnormalities in the genome. It can be caused by a mutation in a single gene (monogenic) or multiple genes (polygenic) or by a chromosome abnormality. Although polygenic disorders are ...

in the Hepburn-Stuart-Forbes-Trefusis family may have killed male members of the family in early childhood and caused learning disabilities in females.Bowes-Lyon Retardation Gene May Have Killed Males‎
, ''The Age'', 9 April 1987.) She went on to marry the aristocrat and entrepreneur Colin Tennant and is known as

Anne Tennant, Baroness Glenconner Anne Veronica Tennant, Dowager Baroness Glenconner, (''née'' Coke; born 16 July 1932) is a British peeress and socialite. The daughter of the 5th Earl of Leicester, Lady Glenconner served as a maid of honour at the coronation of Elizabeth II ...

Honours

* - Knight of Justice of the

Order of St John The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), is a Catholic military order. It was founded in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century and had headquarters there u ...

(K.StJ). * -

Queen's South Africa Medal The Queen's South Africa Medal is a British campaign medal awarded to British and Colonial military personnel, and to civilians employed in an official capacity, who served in the Second Boer War in South Africa. Altogether twenty-six clasps wer ...

. * -

1914–15 Star The 1914–15 Star is a campaign medal of the British Empire which was awarded to all who served in the British and Imperial forces in any theatre of the First World War against the Central European Powers during 1914 and 1915. The medal was n ...

. *

British War Medal The British War Medal is a campaign medal of the United Kingdom which was awarded to officers and men and women of British and Imperial forces for service in the First World War. Two versions of the medal were produced. About 6.5 million were st ...

. *

WWI Victory Medal The World War I Victory Medal (known prior to establishment of the World War II Victory Medal in 1945 simply as the Victory Medal) was a United States service medal designed by James Earle Fraser of New York City under the direction of the Co ...

. * Deputy lieutenant (DL) of

. *

(1944–1949). * Justice of the Peace (JP) for

References

External links

Lady Sylvia recalls her childhood at Holkham House
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leicester, Thomas Coke, 4th Earl Of 1880 births 1949 deaths People educated at Eton College British Army personnel of the Second Boer War British Army personnel of World War I Thomas Coke 4th Earl of Leicester Knights of the Order of St John Lord-lieutenants of Norfolk Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst Scots Guards officers Norfolk Yeomanry officers English justices of the peace