Claude Lowther

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Colonel Claude William Henry Lowther (1872 – 16 June 1929) was an English Unionist politician. He was the son of Francis William Lowther and Louise Beatrice de Fonblanque; Francis William was the illegitimate son of the Earl of Lonsdale and an opera singer, and received £125,000 on the Earl's death. ^[1]

Lowther was educated at Rugby School and had a brief diplomatic career as honorary attaché at Madrid in 1894. When the Second Boer War broke out, he joined the 8th Battalion, Imperial Yeomanry. During a skirmish at Faber's Put on 30 March 1900, he and two troopers rescued two wounded men while under heavy Boer Fire, an act for which he was unsuccessfully recommended for the Victoria Cross by Sir Charles Warren.^[1]

In October 1900, at the "Khaki Election", he was returned as Unionist Member of Parliament for Eskdale. However, he was defeated in 1916 by the Liberal candidate, Geoffrey William Algernon Howard. After his defeat, he became a vigorous campaigner against socialism and for the preservation of Empire and traditional privilege. Lowther favored tariff reform and "national efficiency", including welfare. From 1908 until 1911, he was chairman of the Anti-Socialist Union. Defeated again in Eskdale at the January 1910 election, he regained the seat in December 1910.^[1]

Aside from his political career, Lowther was also a connoisseur and a student of the theatre, and a friend of Herbert Beerbohm Tree. Lowther's play The Gordian Knot was presented at Her Majesty's Theatre in 1903, but was not at all successful. The episode, however, did not bring about a breach between Lowther and Tree.^[1] He bought Herstmonceux Castle in 1911 and began restoring it in 1912.^[2] The inhabitable parts were refurnished and stocked with objets d'art.

In September 1914, he raised and equipped the 11th, 12th, and 13th Battalions of the Royal Sussex Regiment, who became known as "Lowther's Lambs". His recruiting was highly successful, enlisting men from the South Downs already bound to one another by community ties. However, Lowther, like most who raised service battalions, was not to command them in France. He returned to Herstmonceux^[1], while his "Lambs" were terribly damaged in their first attack in June 1916, intended to divert attention from the offensive on the Somme.

In Parliament, he called for both military and industrial conscription, and for the creation of a volunteer army of veterans past the age of service. Lowther followed the philosophy of Milner in admiring the patriotic dedication of the working class.^[1]

After the redistribution of constituencies by the Representation of the People Act 1918, he became MP for Lonsdale, holding the seat until 1922. Post-war, Lowther's attitude was anti-modernist. He favored large idemnity payments from Germany, and supported the Anti-Waste League, and, less fortunately, Horatio Bottomley. He was among the MPs who voted to end the coalition with Lloyd George at the Carlton Club meeting brought on by the Chanak Crisis. However, he had reached the end of his political life: due to failing health, he did not stand for re-election that year.^[1]

Lowther died at his home in London in 1929. After his death, the collection he had assembled at Herstmonceux was sold off, and the castle itself sold to Reginald Lawson.^[1]

[edit] References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h} Grieves, Keith (2004). "Lowther, Claude William Henry (1870–1929)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Retrieved on January 14, 2007. 
2. ^ Herstmonceux Castle. Retrieved on January 14, 2007.

• This page incorporates information from Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page.

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Robert Andrew Allison	Member of Parliament for Eskdale 1900–1906	Succeeded by Geoffrey William Algernon Howard
Preceded by Geoffrey William Algernon Howard	Member of Parliament for Eskdale 1910–1918	Succeeded by Constituency abolished
Preceded by Constituency created	Member of Parliament for Lonsdale 1918–1922	Succeeded by Myles Storr Nigel Kennedy