Henry Wellesley, 3rd Earl Cowley


Henry Arthur Mornington Wellesley, 3rd Earl Cowley JP, styled as Viscount Dangan between 1884 and 1895, was an English aristocrat.

Early life

Henry was born at Wilton Place, London on 14 January 1866. He was the eldest son of William Wellesley, 2nd Earl Cowley and the former Emily Gwendoline Peers-Williams. His only sibling, Lady Eva Wellesley, married, as his second wife, Randolph Wemyss, Laird of Wemyss Castle and Chief of Clan Wemyss.
His mother was the second daughter of Col. Thomas Peers Williams MP for Great Marlow and the former Emily Bacon. His paternal grandparents were Henry Wellesley, 1st Earl Cowley and the Hon. Olivia Cecilia FitzGerald. His grandfather, the 1st Earl Cowley, was Queen Victoria's Ambassador to France for fifteen years and was a nephew of the 1st Duke of Wellington and the 1st Marquess Wellesley. Lord Cowley's aunt, Lady Feodorowna Wellesley, was married to Francis Bertie, 1st Viscount Bertie of Thame, who also served as the British Ambassador to France.

Career

He attended Eton College between 1880 and 1881.
He was a Captain in the Wiltshire Regiment and gained the rank of Lieutenant in 1893 in the Royal Gloucestershire Hussars. Upon his father's death in 1895, he became the third Earl Cowley. Between 1899 and 1900, Lord Cowley fought in the Boer War with the Imperial Yeomanry.
He held the office of Justice of the Peace for Wiltshire.

Personal life

On 17 December 1889, he was married to Lady Violet Nevill, at St George's Church in Hanover Square, London. the daughter of William Nevill, 1st Marquess of Abergavenny and the former Caroline Vanden-Bempde-Johnstone. Before she divorced him on 2 February 1897 alleging "misconduct", they were the parents of one son:
He married, secondly, Hon. Millicent Florence Eleanor Cradock-Hartopp on 14 December 1905 at Colombo in Sri Lanka. Millicent, the divorced wife of Sir Charles Cradock-Hartopp, 5th Baronet, was a daughter of Charles Wilson, 1st Baron Nunburnholme and the former Florence Jane Helen Wellesley. In 1912, while still married to his second wife, Lord Cowley was a named as a correspondent in the divorce suite of Geoffrey Charles Buxton against his wife. Before she divorced him in 1913, citing his "desertion and misconduct with Mrs. G.C. Buxton", they were the parents of:
His third, and final, marriage was to Clare Florence Mary Buxton on 19 January 1914. Clare, who was by then divorced from her husband Geoffrey Buxton of Dunston Hall, was a daughter of Sir Francis Stapleton, 8th Baronet and Mary Catherine Gladstone. They were the parents of:
Lord Cowley died at Chippenham in Wiltshire on 15 January 1919, at age 53. He was buried at Chippenham. His widow, the Dowager Countess of Cowley, died in a fire on 8 May 1949.