Cospatrick Alexander Douglas-Home, 11th Earl of Home (27 October 1799 – 4 July 1881), styled Lord Dunglass until 1841, was a Scottish diplomat and politician. He served as Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs under the Duke of Wellington from 1828 to 1830.
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Home was born at Dalkeith House, Midlothian (the seat of his maternal grandfather), the son of Alexander Home, 10th Earl of Home, by Lady Elizabeth Scott, daughter of Henry Scott, 3rd Duke of Buccleuch. He was educated at Christ Church, Oxford.[1]
Home served as an Attaché at St Petersburg from 1822 to 1823 and was with the Foreign Office from 1823 to 1827. In 1828 he was appointed Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in the Duke of Wellington's Tory administration, a post he held until 1830. He succeeded his father in the earldom in 1841 and the following year he was elected a Scottish Representative peer, which he remained until 1874. In 1875 he was created Baron Douglas, of Douglas in the County of Lanark, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, a revival of the title held by his wife's maternal grandfather (see below) and which entitled him and his descendants to an automatic seat in the House of Lords.
Lord Home married the Honourable Lucy Elizabeth Montagu-Scott, daughter of Henry Montagu-Scott, 2nd Baron Montagu of Boughton and the Honourable Jane Margaret Douglas, the only daughter from the first marriage of Archibald Douglas, 1st Baron Douglas (a title which had become extinct in 1857). He assumed the additional surname of Douglas on succeeding to the Douglas estates. The couple had several children, including William Sholto Home (1842–1916), a Major-General in the British Army. The Countess of Home died in May 1877, aged 71. Lord Home died at the Hirsel, Berwickshire, in July 1881, aged 81, and was succeeded in the earldom by his eldest son, Charles. Home's great-grandson Alec Douglas-Home, 14th Earl of Home, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1963 to 1964.[1]
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by The Lord Howard de Walden |
Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs 1828–1830 |
Succeeded by Sir George Shee, Bt |
| Peerage of Scotland | ||
| Preceded by Alexander Home |
Earl of Home 1841–1881 |
Succeeded by Charles Alexander Douglas-Home |
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
| New creation | Baron Douglas 1875–1881 |
Succeeded by Charles Alexander Douglas-Home |