Neil Primrose (politician)

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Headstone on Capt. Primrose's grave, Ramleh War Cemetery, Israel
Headstone on Capt. Primrose's grave, Ramleh War Cemetery, Israel

Captain Neil James Archibald Primrose, MC (14 December 188215 November 1917), British Liberal politician and soldier, was the second son of Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery and Hannah de Rothschild, and brother of the writer Lady Sybil Grant. He was born at Dalmeny.[1]

He entered Parliament in 1910 as member for Wisbech. On 7 April 1915, he married Lady Victoria Stanley, daughter of Edward Stanley, 17th Earl of Derby. The couple had one daughter: Ruth Alice Hannah Mary Primrose (b. 18 April 1916), married on 25 April 1936 Charles Wood, 2nd Earl of Halifax.

Primrose was commissioned into the Royal Buckinghamshire Hussars in 1909. Promoted Captain in 1915, he was awarded the Military Cross in 1916. Created a Privy Counsellor in 1917, he was killed in November at Gezer during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign while leading his squadron against Turkish positions on the Abu Shusheh ridge during the Third Battle of Gaza. He is buried in the Ramleh Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery at Ramla, in Israel. {According to Vladimir Jabotinsky's "The Story of the Jewish Legion", Primrose came very close to joining the Jewish Legion but did not because of a miscommunication}.

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Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Cecil Beck
Member of Parliament for Wisbech
1910–1917
Succeeded by
Colin Reith Coote
Political offices
Preceded by
Francis Dyke Acland
Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
1915
Succeeded by
Lord Robert Cecil
Preceded by
Lord Edmund Talbot
John William Gulland
Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury
with Lord Edmund Talbot

1916–1917
Succeeded by
Lord Edmund Talbot
Frederick Guest