Richard Temple-Grenville, 3rd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos

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The Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, by Carlo Pellegrini, 1875

Richard Plantagenet Campbell Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, 3rd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos GCSI, PC (10 September 1823–26 March 1889), usually shortened to Richard Temple-Grenville, was a British statesman of the 19th century, and a close friend and subordinate of Benjamin Disraeli. He was styled Marquess of Chandos until the death of his father in 1861.

Lord Chandos was the only son of Richard Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, 2nd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos and Mary Campbell (therefore receiving the aforementioned courtesy title). He attended Eton until 1841, when he matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford. Two years later, he was commissioned a lieutenant in the Royal Bucks (a regiment of yeomanry), and he would eventually become an honorary colonel of that regiment. In 1846, Chandos entered Parliament as Conservative MP for Buckinghamshire, and would continue to be re-elected for that constituency until 1857.

The 719 heraldic quarterings of the Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville family

In 1852, he entered Lord Derby's administration as a lord of the treasury, a position he would hold for exactly ten months. That year, he was also appointed Keeper of the Privy Seal of the Prince of Wales, deputy warden of the stannaries, and chairman of the London and North-Western Railway. In 1857, he resigned as MP for Buckinghamshire; two years later, he contested William Ewart Gladstone for the constituency of Oxford University, but lost to the future prime minister. In 1861, he took his seat on the House of Lords, upon the inheritance of his father's dukedom; he also resigned as chairman of the London and North-Western Railway.

Chandos's political career was stagnant until 1866, when he was appointed to the Privy Council and became Lord Derby's Lord President of the Council. He would serve in the latter capacity (the former was an appointment of indefinite length) until 8 March 1867, when he succeeded Lord Carnarvon as Secretary of State for the Colonies. He would remain in that position for a year, receiving the additional appointment of Lord Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire in 1868. In the same year, he established his right to the Lordship of Kinloss. After he was succeeded as Colonial Secretary by Lord Granville, Chandos's political career once again stagnated, broken by service as Governor of Madras (India) for five years, during which time he was created a Knight Grand Commander of the Star of India. He married, at the age of 62, Alice Anne Montgomery (his second wife; he had previously married Caroline Harvey in 1851). A year later, in 1886, he became chairman of committees in the House of Lords, but died three years later of an unknown illness (possibly diabetes, prostatitis, or cystitis), at Chandos House. With no male issue, Chandos's Dukedom and associated peerages became extinct.

[edit] References

• Leigh Rayment's Peerage
• The Dukes of Buckingham