Lord Ronald Gower

Portrait of Lord Ronald Gower by Henry Scott Tuke, 1897

Lord Ronald Charles Sutherland-Leveson-Gower (2 August 1845 – 9 March 1916), known as Lord Ronald Gower, was a Scottish Liberal politician, sculptor and writer[1] from the Leveson-Gower family.

Biography

The youngest son of George, 2nd Duke of Sutherland by his wife Lady Harriet Howard, daughter of George, Earl of Carlisle, he was educated at Eton and at Trinity College, Cambridge.[2]

He was a Liberal Member of Parliament for Sutherland from 1867–1874, and was succeeded as MP by his nephew Cromartie, Marquess of Stafford (the elder surviving son of his eldest brother the 3rd Duke of Sutherland). He was a Trustee of the National Portrait Gallery, and of the Birthplace and Shakespeare Memorial Building at Stratford-on-Avon.

Creative work

Gower's statue of Hamlet in Stratford-upon-Avon

A sculptor, he also published a number of works on the fine arts. His most important sculpture was the statue of Shakespeare and four of his principal characters, erected in Stratford-upon-Avon. He also created a sculpture depicting Marie Antoinette on her way to the scaffold and another of a member of the Old Guard at Waterloo.

He also wrote biographies of Marie Antoinette and Joan of Arc, and a history of the Tower of London.[3]

Personal life

Gower's lover Frank Hird, painted by Henry Scott Tuke.

Gower, who never married, was well known among the homosexual community of the time. Oscar Wilde's story The Portrait of Mr. W. H. has been interpreted as a comment on Gower's social circle, and Gower is generally identified as the model for Lord Henry Wotton in The Picture of Dorian Gray.[4] In 1879 hints of his homosexual liaisons published in the journal Man of the World led Gower to sue the paper, but later in the year the Prince of Wales sent him a letter accusing him of being "a member of an association for unnatural practices", to which Gower wrote an angry reply.[4] John Addington Symonds, who stayed with him once, stated that Gower "saturates one's spirit in Urningthum [homosexuality] of the rankest most diabolical kind".[4] His most notable relationship was with the journalist, Frank Hird, which lasted to the end of Hird's life. Gower later adopted Hird as his son, leading Wilde to remark on one occasion, "Frank may be seen, but not Hird." They are buried together at St Paul's Parish Church, Rusthall, Kent.[5]

In 1890 Gower was implicated in the Cleveland Street Scandal.[6] In 1913, Francis Shackleton (brother of the famed Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton) was charged with defrauding Gower of his fortune.[7]

Notes

  1. ↑ "GOWER, Rt. Hon. Lord Ronald Sutherland-". Who's Who. Vol. 59. 1907. p. 711.
  2. ↑ "Leveson-Gower, Lord Ronald Charles Sutherland (LV865LR)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  3. ↑ https://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9906E0D91F38E633A25753C1A9659C946796D6CF&oref=slogin
  4. 1 2 3 David Getsy, Sculpture and the Pursuit of a Modern Ideal in Britain, C. 1880-1930, Asgate, London, 2004, p.64.
  5. ↑ Hyde, H. Montgomery (1970), The Love That Dared not Speak its Name, Little, Brown, p. 156
  6. ↑ "The London Scandals". The Press. XLVI (7418). 9 December 1889. p. 6.
  7. ↑ "COLOSSAL FRAUD. LORD RONALD GOWER RUINED. SIR E. SHACKLETON'S BROTHER CHARGED.". The West Australian. 15 February 1913. p. 11.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
David Dundas		 Member of Parliament for Sutherland
1867–1874 		Succeeded by
Marquess of Stafford
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