Alfred Mordaunt Egerton


Sir Alfred Mordaunt Egerton, was an English soldier and courtier.

Early life and family

Alfred Mordaunt Egerton was born on 30 March 1843, the youngest son of the Rev. Thomas Egerton and his wife, Charlotte, daughter of Sir William Milner, Baronet. In 1878, he married the Honourable Mary Georgina Ormsby-Gore, DStJ, the daughter of William Ormsby-Gore, 2nd Baron Harlech; she was a Lady-in-waiting to the Duchess of Connaught. They had four sons: Lieutenant Colonel Arthur George Edward Egerton, who was killed in action in the First World War; Captain Louis Edwin William Egerton, an alumnus of Christ Church, Oxford, and an officer in the Royal Buckinghamshire Hussars also killed in action during the First World War; Josslyn Seymour Egerton, sometime Page of Honour to Queen Victoria; and Alfred Charles Glyn Egerton, the chemist.

Military career

Egerton was schooled at Eton College between 1856 and 1859. In 1861, Egerton purchased a commission as an ensign in the Rifle Brigade, replacing Frederick William Duncombe. He served with the 2nd Battalion in India from 1863 to 1866, purchasing a promotion to lieutenant in 1865 after Richard Winstanley Ormerod retired. He was subsequently with the 1st Battalion of the Rifle Brigade in Canada and then moved over to the Royal Horse Guards in 1869, replacing Thomas Edward Case. By then a captain, in 1878 the Duke of Connaught appointed Egerton his equerry in the room of Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Frederick Pickard. In 1881, he was promoted to major and in 1888 retired with the honorary rank of colonel. He subsequently served as Comptroller and Treasurer to the Duke of Connaught from 1890. A keen shooter, rower, cricketer and cyclist, for his royal service Egerton was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1896, and a Commander and then Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order. He died on 26 May 1908. In 2011, Bonhams auctioned his set of medals and orders for £62,400, including the Knight Commander's badge of the Order of Philip of Hesse, the 2nd class badge of the Russian Order of St Anne, the Commander's badges of the Greek Order of the Redeemer and the Swedish Order of the North Star.

Likenesses