Maj. Richard Harold St. Maur, of Horton, Chipping Sodbury, Gloucester[1] (Brighton, Sussex, 6 June 1869 – 5 April 1927) JP DL was claimant to the Dukedom of Somerset, and briefly the Liberal MP for Exeter, being unseated on petition by a single vote.
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Harold St Maur was born in Brighton in 1869,[2] the illegitimate son of Edward Seymour, Earl St Maur, and grandson of Edward Seymour, 12th Duke of Somerset. His mother was a 19-year old half-gipsy maid named Rosina Elizabeth Swan of Higham, near Bury St. Edmunds;[3] St Maur's father died within months of his birth.
He was educated at Wellington College and Sandhurst, and served with the 14th Hussars and later with the 1st Division Royal Devon Yeomanry.[4] He fought in the Boer War at Natal with the 7th Remounts and the Royal 1st Devon Imperial Yeomanry. St Maur wrote a book which he titled "Notebook for Officers and Non-Commissioned Officers of the Yeomanry".[2]
He married in 1891, Elizabeth, daughter of Captain W.H. Palmer, of the 14th Hussars. There were three sons from the marriage. St Maur lived at Stover Park, near Newton Abbot, which he inherited from his grandfather the 12th Duke of Somerset in 1885. He was a member of Newton Abbot Urban District Council.[2]
St Maur had been identified with radical and Labour politics in Mid Devon and had given campaign donations to Labour candidates.[2] In 1909 he was selected as Liberal candidate for the Exeter constituency, where the sitting Liberal MP Sir George Kekewich was retiring; the Conservatives were expected to easily regain the seat. At the January 1910 election Harold St Maur was beaten by Henry Duke by just 26 votes. The parliament did not last long, and at the second general election in December 1910, St. Maur stood again in Exeter.
At this election St Maur triumphed over Duke by just four votes, and after a recount was declared elected by the same margin on 3 December 1910,[5] although there were several disputed ballot papers. The Conservatives launched an election petition which was heard over a period of a week in April 1911, before Mr. Justices Ridley and Channell, at the Exeter Guildhall.
The first day of the petition concerned 14 votes which were disputed by either side. On the first scrutiny of the votes, St Maur's majority of four votes was eliminated, placing the candidates level. Then St Maur went ahead again by two votes, only to fall back to level pegging again. However, Henry Duke's lawyers established a case of personation, which gave Duke a lead of one vote at the end of the first day.[6]
On the second day, two of Duke's votes were disallowed, putting St. Maur back in the lead by one vote.[6] The third and fourth days were taken up with evidence regarding voters being paid for bill-distribution.[7] On the fifth day, the Judges struck five votes off St. Maur's total, putting Duke ahead by four votes, although Mr. Justice Channell said if he had been hearing the case alone he would not have disallowed so many. On the other hand he opined that if Mr. Justice Ridley had been acting alone he would have disallowed more.[8]
On the sixth day two of Duke's votes were disallowed, on the grounds that the voter had been paid to distribute cards, or in the latter case the voter's son had been paid to run messages on polling day. A further two votes in Duke's column were disallowed when it was proved in Court that the voters were underage. Thus at the end of the sixth day the candidates were level again on 4,777 votes apiece.[9]
On the seventh day, the Court heard evidence that a man named Pannell or Purnell had been paid five shillings by the Liberals to act as a tally clerk. The Judges disallowed this vote, and since St. Maur's lawyers had indicated no further challenges, Henry Duke was declared elected by a single vote.[10]
He served in the First World War, at Gallipoli, then in the campaign against the Senussi, and finally as liaison officer between Lord Allenby and the French Forces. For this work he was awarded the Legion of Honour and the Croix de Guerre with palms. He was Master of the South Devon Hounds for many years.
In 1925, after the death of the 15th Duke of Somerset, St. Maur petitioned the House of Lords Committee for Privileges to safeguard his claim to the Dukedom, in the hope that he might find proof that his parents were legally married before his birth.[3] On the death of his grandfather the 12th Duke in 1885, St Maur had been presumed illegitimate, and the Dukedom eventually passed to a distant branch of the family. He also placed advertisements in newspapers, offering a £50 reward for any witness to his parents' marriage.[11]
St Maur died at Kipipili, Gilgil, Kenya, in 1927, aged 57.
List of United Kingdom MPs with the shortest service
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Henry Duke |
Member of Parliament for Exeter December 1910 – 1911 |
Succeeded by Henry Duke |