The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-12-30

John George Lambton, first Earl of Dur
ham, was born on April IL, 1892. He was the
eldest son of William Henry Lambton,
M. p. and the grandson OF Gen. Lambton,
10 whom a peerage was offered at the time
when the Duke of Portland joined Pitt in
i7o3, but who refused the proffered honor
because his political ~sympathies were with
Fox. Lord Durham's father, William Henry
Lambton, entered the House of Commons
in 1877. at the age of %, taking the seat for
the city of Durham, which had been vacated
by his father, Gen. Lambton. In his brief
Parliamentary career-he died in 1901
William Henry Lambton made his mark
asa speaker, and became one of the founders
of the powerful association as The
Friends of the People" the aim of which
was to restore reedom OF election and a
more equal representation of the people in
Parliament" The list of these early re-
formers Of the franchise includes the name
of the father Of Lord John Russell, as well
ms the names Of Grey and Macintosh,
Sheridan, Whitbread, Cartwright and
Erskine. Lambton's last speech in Parlia-
ment ~(January. 1880 was a bold protest
against the iniquitous abuse of power EN-
bodied in Pitts bill s%uspending the writ Of
habeas corpus
William Henry Lambton had married in
1901, six years before his death, Lady Anne
Barbara Frances Villiers, second daughter
of George fourth Earl Of Jersey. OF the
five children Of this marriage, John George
Lambton was the eldest. At the age Of Q
he was placed under the care of DR.. Beddoes,
a distinguished physician OF Bristol, the
brother-in-law Of Maria Edgeworth. We
learn that at 10 and a half the boy could
write Latin and Greek, both prose and
verse, was advanced in arithmetic, algebra
and Euclid. and was beginning to acquire
information in chemistry and some other
sciences. II is evident that DR.. Beddoes
more thar any other man awakened young
Lambton's intelligence and inspired him
with a hatred of oppression. Eton, whittier
he was sent at the age Of 10, was then,
though an aristocratic, by no means the
model SCHOOL, which il subsequently became
under Hawtrey. Surprisingly little is
known of Lambton's experiences at Eton,
where. in spite Of his skill in Latin verse
and his proficiency in scientific knowledge,
he seems not to have made any mark.
When he left the school in his sixteenth
year his guardians hesitated between
sending him to Cambridge and placing
him at Edinburgh under the care of Prof.
Dugald Stewart. The young man himself,
however, was determined 10 enter the
army, and ultimately June, 1902 a com-
mission Of cornet was procured for him
In the Tenth Hussars, the crack regiment
OF the period. As he found small chance
Of distinction in a regiment Of which the
Prince Regent was honorary Colonel,
young Lambton relinquished his commits
sion toward the close Of the year 1911, and
on January 1 Of the following year married
at Gretna Green Miss Henrietta Chol-
mondeley, the illegitimate daughter Of the
Marquis Of that name. Her mother was a
French actress on the English stage, but
the girl had been brought up in Lord Chol-
mondeley's home, side by side with his
legitimate children. Young Lsmbton. with
his rood looks, ancient lineage, powerful
family connection, and the wealth which
had accumulated during his long minority,
might rave made a great alliance. He
chose instead a marriage of pure affection,
and the invidious position in which Miss
C~hoImondeley was placed through no fault
Of her own appealed irresistibIy to the
chivslrous instincts Of his nature. Later
in the same month the ceremony Of mar
rage was repeated in the presence Of young
Lambton's mother, VIII by her second
marrieGe had become Lady Ann Wynd-
ham. Young Lambton's marriage, though
q happy one, was short lived, his wife dying
IN 1915, soon after the birth of her third
child. A year and a half later, John George
Lambton married a second time, his wife
being Lady Elizabeth Grey, eldest daughter
OF the second Earl Grey.
Iauahton,a LAM minority andnd in thn