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.

Early and personal life

De Chair was the younger son of Admiral Sir

Dudley Rawson Stratford de Chair Admiral Sir Dudley Rawson Stratford de Chair (30 August 1864 – 17 August 1958) was a senior Royal Navy officer and later Governor of New South Wales. Early life and career De Chair was born on 30 August 1864 in Lennoxville, Province of ...

, KCB, KCMG, MVO, and Enid, daughter of Henry William Struben, of Transvaal,

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...

. The de Chair family were of

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Bez ...

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 Worplesdon is a village NNW of Guildford in Surrey, England and a large dispersed civil parish that includes the settlements of: Worplesdon itself (including its central church area, Perry Hill), Fairlands, Jacobs Well, Rydeshill and Wood Str ...

, Surrey. They had two sons: Rodney Somerset and Peter Dudley, and divorced in 1950. He married secondly, in 1957, Mrs (June) Carmen Appleton, daughter of A. G. Bowen, of

Brabourne Brabourne is a village and civil parish in the Ashford district of Kent, England. The village centre is east of Ashford Ashford may refer to: Places Australia *Ashford, New South Wales *Ashford, South Australia *Electoral district of Ash ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. 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 Sir Charles Mansfield Tobias Clarke, 6th Baronet (8 September 1939 – 16 September 2019), known as Sir Toby Clarke since 1973, was a British businessman. Clarke was the son of Sir Humphrey Clarke, 5th Baronet and was educated at Eton, Christ Chu ...

). 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 Victor Frederick Cochrane Hervey, 6th Marquess of Bristol (6 October 1915 – 10 March 1985), was a British aristocrat, hereditary peer and businessman. He was a member of the House of Lords, Chancellor of the International Monarchist League, an ...

in 1972. Somerset and Lady Juliet had a daughter, Helena, who married

Jacob Rees-Mogg Jacob William Rees-Mogg (born 24 May 1969) is a British politician serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for North East Somerset since 2010. Now a backbencher, he served as Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council ...

. The hurdler Sir Charles Lawrence Somerset Clarke, 7th Baronet 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 , motto_translation = "Bravely and Faithfully" , streetaddress = 87–129 Pennant Hills Road , city = North Parramatta, Sydney , state = New South Wales , country = Australia , coordinat ...

in New South Wales between 1923 and 1930 before attending

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the ...

. 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 Paddington South was a Parliamentary constituency in London which returned one Member of Parliament. It was a compact urban area, but predominantly wealthy, and was most famously represented by Lord Randolph Churchill during the latter part o ...

from 1950 to 1951. Since he had been a cadet in the

Officers' Training Corps The Officers' Training Corps (OTC), more fully called the University Officers' Training Corps (UOTC), are military leadership training units operated by the British Army. Their focus is to develop the leadership abilities of their members whilst ...

at Oxford, De Chair qualified for a commission as a Reserve

Second Lieutenant Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank. Australia The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until 1 ...

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 World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. He served as an

intelligence officer An intelligence officer is a person employed by an organization to collect, compile or analyze information (known as intelligence) which is of use to that organization. The word of ''officer'' is a working title, not a rank, used in the same way a ...

with the 4th Cavalry Brigade during the

Anglo-Iraqi War The Anglo-Iraqi War was a British-led Allies of World War II, Allied military campaign during the Second World War against the Kingdom of Iraq under Rashid Ali, Rashid Gaylani, who had seized power in the 1941 Iraqi coup d'état, with assista ...

and the

Syrian Campaign Syrians ( ar, سُورِيُّون, ''Sūriyyīn'') are an Eastern Mediterranean ethnic group indigenous to the Levant. They share common Levantine Semitic roots. The cultural and linguistic heritage of the Syrian people is a blend of both indi ...

where he was wounded on 21 June 1941. Later service was with the General Staff with the rank of Acting

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

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 and leased

Blickling Hall Blickling Hall is a Jacobean stately home situated in 5,000 acres of parkland in a loop of the River Bure, near the village of Blickling north of Aylsham in Norfolk, England. The mansion was built on the ruins of a Tudor building for Sir Henry ...

from the Marquess of Lothian. He owned

St Osyth's Priory St Osyth's Abbey (originally and still commonly known as St Osyth's Priory) was a house of Augustinian canons in the parish of St Osyth (then named Chich) in Essex, England in use from the 12th to 16th centuries. Founded by Richard de Belme ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

from 1954 until his death in 1995, and also bought

Bourne Park House Bourne Park House is a Queen Anne style country house on Bourne Park Road, between Bishopsbourne and Bridge near Canterbury in Kent. Built in 1701, it has been listed Grade I listed on the National Heritage List for England since 1954. An 18t ...

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'' (1991) ;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) *Collected Verse (1970) *Sounds of Summer (1992)

References

*
everything2.com

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:De Chair, Somerset 1911 births 1995 deaths 20th-century British dramatists and playwrights 20th-century English poets 20th-century English novelists Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford British Army personnel of World War II Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies English autobiographers English translators French–English translators People educated at The King's School, Parramatta Royal Horse Guards officers UK MPs 1935–1945 UK MPs 1950–1951 20th-century English translators

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lor ...