Somerset de Chair

Somerset Struben de Chair (22 August 1911 – 5 January 1995) was an English author, politician, and poet. He edited several volumes of the memoirs of Napoleon.

Somerset de Chair
Member of Parliament for Paddington South
In office 23 February 1950 – 4 October 1951
Preceded by	Ernest Taylor
Succeeded by	Robert Allan
Member of Parliament for South West Norfolk
In office 14 November 1935 – 15 June 1945
Preceded by	Alan McLean
Succeeded by	Sidney Dye
Personal details
Born	Somerset Struben de Chair (1911-08-22)22 August 1911 Windsor, Berkshire, England
Died	5 January 1995(1995-01-05) (aged 83) Antigua
Political party	Conservative
Spouses	Thelma Grace Arbuthnot ​ ​ (m. 1932; div. 1950)​ Carmen Appleton ​ ​ (m. 1950; div. 1958)​ Margaret Patricia Manlove ​ ​ (m. 1958; div. 1974)​ Lady Juliet Wentworth-Fitzwilliam ​ ​ (m. 1974)​
Children	6, including: Helena Rees-Mogg
Parent(s)	Admiral Sir Dudley Rawson Stratford de Chair Enid Struben
Alma mater	Balliol College, Oxford
Profession	Author, Politician
Military service
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Branch/service	British Army
Rank	Captain
Unit	Royal Horse Guards
Battles/wars	Second World War   · Anglo-Iraqi War   · Battle of Palmyra

Early and personal life

De Chair was the younger son of Admiral Sir Dudley de Chair and his wife Enid Struben, daughter of Henry William Struben, of Transvaal, South Africa. The de Chair family were of Huguenot origin, descending from Rene de la Chaire, whose grandson, Jean Francois, Councillor to Charles IX, was created a Marquis in 1600 by Henry IV. The family became English gentry through generations of clergymen. He married firstly, on 8 October 1932, Thelma Grace (1911–1974), daughter of Harold Dennison Arbuthnot, of Merristwood Hall, Worplesdon, Surrey. They had two sons: Rodney Somerset and Peter Dudley, and divorced in 1950.

He married secondly, in 1950, Mrs (June) Carmen Appleton, daughter of A. G. Bowen, of Brabourne, Kent. They had two sons: Rory and Somerset Carlo, and divorced in 1957. In 1958 de Chair married his third wife, Mrs Margaret Patricia Manlove, daughter of K. E. Field-Hart; they had a daughter, Teresa Loraine Aphrodite (who married Sir Toby Clarke, 6th Baronet). The third marriage ended in divorce in 1974, and that year he married his fourth wife, Lady Juliet Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, only child of Peter Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, 8th Earl Fitzwilliam, who had divorced Victor Hervey, 6th Marquess of Bristol, in 1972. Somerset and Lady Juliet had a daughter, Helena, who married Jacob Rees-Mogg. The hurdler Lawrence Clarke is his grandson and the Member of Parliament Theo Clarke is his granddaughter.

Career

Somerset de Chair was educated at The King's School, Parramatta, in New South Wales between 1923 and 1930 before attending Balliol College, Oxford.

He was Conservative MP for South West Norfolk between 1935 and 1945, losing his seat by 53 votes. He was one of the Conservatives who voted against the government in the Norway Debate in May 1940. He then served as a Parliamentary Private Secretary in 1942–44. De Chair returned to Parliament as MP for Paddington South from 1950 to 1951. Many years later, in 1994, he stood in that year's European Parliament elections as the "Independent Anti European Superstate" candidate for Essex North and Suffolk South, coming in fourth place with 12,409 votes.

Since he had been a cadet in the Officers' Training Corps at Oxford, De Chair qualified for a commission as a Reserve Second Lieutenant of the Life Guards in 1938. He was mobilised on 24 August 1939, a few days before the United Kingdom's entry into World War II. He served as an intelligence officer with the 4th Cavalry Brigade during the Anglo-Iraqi War and the Syrian Campaign where he was wounded on 21 June 1941. Later service was with the General Staff with the rank of Acting Captain.

Writings

De Chair wrote historical non-fiction, a number of now largely neglected novels, one play, three collections of poetry, and several works of autobiography. He also edited several volumes of the memoirs of Napoleon in English.

Houses and art

De Chair was known for his extravagant taste and lived in a series of large country houses. He lived between 1944 and 1949 at Chilham Castle in Kent, and leased Blickling Hall in Norfolk, the former home of the Marquess of Lothian, from the National Trust. He owned St Osyth's Priory in Essex from 1954 until his death in 1995, and also bought Bourne Park House in Kent with his last wife, Lady Juliet Wentworth-Fitzwilliam.

Bibliography

Fiction

• Enter Napoleon (1934)
• Red Tie in the Morning (1936)
• The Teetotalitarian State (1947)
• The Dome of the Rock (1948)
• The Story of a Lifetime (1954)
• Bring Back the Gods (1962)
• Friends, Romans, Concubines (1973)
• The Star of the Wind (1974)
• Legend of the Yellow River (1979)

Non-fiction

• The Impending Storm (1930)
• Divided Europe (1931)
• The Golden Carpet (1943)
• The Silver Crescent (1943)
• Mind on the March (1945)

Edited and translated

• The First Crusade (1945)
• Napoleon's Memoirs (1945)
• Napoleon's Supper at Beaucaire (1945)
• Julius Caesar's Commentaries (1951)
• Napoleon on Napoleon (1992)

Edited

• The Sea is Strong (1961)
• Getty on Getty (1989)

Autobiographies

• Buried Pleasure (1985)
• Morning Glory (1988)
• Die? I Thought I'd Laugh (1993)

Drama

• Peter Public (1932)

Poetry collections

• The Millennium (1949)
• Songs from St. Osyth: The Collected Verse (1970)
• Sounds of Summer (1992)

References

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs
• everything2.com

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Mr Somerset de Chair