# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Kingscote, Robert Nigel Fitzhardinge

​KINGSCOTE, Sir ROBERT NIGEL FITZHARDINGE (1830–1908), agriculturist, born at Kingscote, Gloucestershire, on 28 Feb. 1830, was only son of Thomas Henry Kingscote, squire of Kingscote (1791-1861), by his first wife, Lady Isabella (1809-1831), sixth daughter of Henry Somerset, sixth duke of Beaufort. Educated privately at a school at Weymouth, he afterwards went abroad with a tutor until at the age of sixteen he obtained a commission in the Scots fusilier guards through the influence of his maternal great-uncle Lord Fitzroy Somerset (afterwards Lord Raglan) [q. v.]. On the outbreak of hostilities with Russia he went out to the Crimea as aide-de-camp to his kinsman. Lord Raglan, and was in close attendance on the commander-in-chief, whose remains he escorted back to England. For his war services he was made brevet major on 12 Dec. 1854, and subsequently lieutenant-colonel and C.B. He sold out of the guards in 1856, and lived the ordinary life of a country gentleman. He had been elected in 1852 as a liberal to represent the western division of Gloucestershire; he retained that seat for thirty-seven years. On the death of his father on 19 Dec. 1861 he came into possession of the estate at Kingscote, and kept up the family traditions as a squire, breeder of pedigree live stock, and follower of the hounds. From 1859 to 1866 he was parliamentary groom-in-waiting to Queen Victoria, and thus began a lifelong intimacy with the royal family, especially with the Prince of Wales (afterwards King Edward VII), In May 1864 he was appointed, in succession to Colonel Thomas, superintendent of the Prince of Wales's stables, a post which he held until 1885. In 1867 he was appointed extra equerry to the prince, and on the accession of the prince to the throne was made extra equerry to the king. In March 1885 Colonel Kingscote accepted ​from Gladstone a commissionership of woods and forests, from -which he retired in 1895, on reaching the age of sixty-five. He became paymaster-general of the royal household on King Edward VII's accession. He was made K.C.B. (civil) on 2 July 1899 and G.C.V.O. on 9 Nov. 1902. He was also a member of council of the Prince of Wales (from 1886), and receiver-general of the Duchy of Cornwall (from 1888).
Kingscote died at Worth Park, Sussex, on 22 Sept. 1908; he married (1) on 15 March 1851 Caroline, daughter of Colonel George Wyndham, first Lord Leconfield (she died in 1852, leaving no issue); (2) on 5 Feb. 1856 Lady Emily Marie Curzon, third daughter of Richard William Penn, first Earl Howe (1836-1910), by whom he had one son and two daughters. A portrait in oils, done by A. de Brie in 1908, belongs to the son. A cartoon by 'Spy' appeared in 'Vanity Fair' (1880). Kingscote was a recognised authority on agriculture. He joined the Royal Agricultural Society in 1854, and was elected a member of the council in 1863, only finally retiring in November 1906. He was chairman of the finance committee for thirty-one years (1875-1906), and was president of the society at Bristol in 1878. When the Royal Agricultural Society met at Cambridge in 1894, Kingscote was made an hon. LL.D. He was chairman of the governors of the Royal Veterinary College, and an active member of the council of the Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester, of the Smithfield Club, Shorthorn Society, Hunters' Improvement Society, and numerous other agricultural organisations. He was also a member of the two royal commissions on agriculture of 1879 and 1893. In personal appearance he was tall, slim, and upright, with an aristocratic face and the aquiline nose of the Somersets, which he inherited from his mother. His courteous bearing and his kindly and tactful manners were of the old school.
[Memoir by the present writer in the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society for 1908, vol. 69 (with photogravure reproduction of his portrait in oils).]
E. C.