Name Richard 4th Died January 10, 1929 | Nationality British | |
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Prime Minister The Marquess of Salisbury Spouse(s) (1) Lady Georgiana Spencer Churchill (1860–1906)(2) Florence Davis(d. 1925)(3) Lorna Curzon(d. 1961) Education Eton College, Christ Church, Oxford | ||
Preceded by Marquess of Carmarthen | ||
Richard George Penn Curzon, 4th Earl Howe (28 April 1861 – 10 January 1929), styled Viscount Curzon between 1876 and 1900, was a British courtier and Conservative politician. He served as Treasurer of the Household between 1896 and 1900 and was Lord Chamberlain to Queen Alexandra between 1903 and 1925.
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Background and education
Curzon was the eldest son of Richard Curzon-Howe, 3rd Earl Howe, and his wife Isabella Katherine Anson, daughter of Major-General the Honourable George Anson. He was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford.
Political career
In 1885, Curzon was elected Member of Parliament for Wycombe. He became a government member when he was appointed Treasurer of the Household under Lord Salisbury in 1896, a post he held until 1900, when he inherited his father's titles and gave up his seat in the House of Commons. From 1900 to 1903 he served as Lord-in-Waiting under Salisbury and then Arthur Balfour. In 1903 he was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order and appointed Lord Chamberlain to Queen Alexandra. He served in that post until the Queen's death in 1925.
Lord Howe was also a Captain in the Prince Albert's Own Leicestershire Yeomanry Cavalry, an Honorary lieutenant-colonel in the 2nd Battalion of the Leicestershire Volunteer Regiment and a Justice of the Peace for Buckinghamshire.
His brother-in-law, Lord Randolph Churchill, appointed him one of his two literary executors; in that capacity he gave his consent to Winston Churchill writing the biography of his father, although with some reluctance.
Family
Lord Howe married Lady Georgiana Elizabeth Spencer-Churchill (St. James's, 14 May 1860 – 9 February 1906), the fifth daughter of John Spencer-Churchill, 7th Duke of Marlborough, on 4 June 1883 at St George's, Hanover Square. They had one son, Francis. After his first wife's death in 1906, Curzon married Florence, Dowager Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava, in 1919. After her death in 1925, he married his first cousin once removed, Lorna Curzon. He died in January 1929, aged 67, and was succeeded by his only son, Francis. The Countess Howe died in February 1961.