Nigel Kingscote

{{Short description|British soldier, Liberal politician, courtier and agriculturalist (1830–1908)}} {{more citations needed|date=April 2012}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2022}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = Sir | name = Nigel Kingscote | honorific_suffix = {{postnominals|country=GBR|GCVO|KCB|JP}} | image = File:Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England. - Sir Nigel Kingscote 1908 volume 69.pdf | alt = | caption = Sir Nigel Kingscote | office1 = Commissioner of Woods and Forests | term1 = 1885–1895 | alongside1 = George Culley (1885–1893) Stafford Howard (1893–1895) | office2 = Member of Parliament for Gloucestershire West | term2 = 1852-1885 | alongside2 = Robert Blagden Hale (1852–1857) Sir John Rolt (1857–1867) Edward Arthur Somerset (1867–1868) Samuel Marling (1867–1874) Hon. Randal Plunkett (1874–1880) Lord Moreton (1880–1885) | party = Liberal | birth_date = {{birth date|1830|02|28|df=yes}} | birth_place = | death_date = {{death date and age|1908|09|22|1830|02|28|df=yes}} | death_place = | education = | relatives = Thomas Kingscote (brother) Henry Wilson (grandson) Henry Somerset (grandfather) Lord Raglan (great-uncle) | spouse = {{marriage|Caroline Wyndham|1851|1852|end=d.}} {{marriage|Emily Curzon|1856}} | children = 4 | module = {{Infobox military person | embed = yes | branch = Army | unit = Scots Fusilier Guards | commands = Royal North Gloucestershire Militia | battles = Crimean War | rank = Colonel }}}} Colonel '''Sir Robert Nigel Fitzhardinge Kingscote''' {{postnominals|country=GBR|GCVO|KCB|JP}}<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=25951 |date=5 July 1889 |page=25951}}</ref> (28 February 1830 – 22 September 1908) was a British soldier, Liberal politician, courtier and agriculturalist. He was generally known as Sir Nigel Kingscote.

==Biography== Kingscote was the son of Colonel Thomas Henry Kingscote, of Kingscote Park, Gloucestershire, by his first wife, Lady Isabella Anne Frances Somerset, a daughter of Henry Somerset, 6th Duke of Beaufort. His mother died when he was less than one year old, shortly after the birth of her second child, a daughter. His brother, Thomas Kingscote, also joined the Royal Household.{{citation needed|date=January 2024}}

==Military career== Kingscote was commissioned in to the Scots Fusilier Guards in 1846.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=25951 |date=5 July 1889 |page=25951}}</ref> He was Aide-de-Camp to his great-uncle, Lord Raglan, during the Crimean War, and later achieved the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the Royal Scots Fusiliers.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=25951 |date=5 July 1889 |page=25951}}</ref> He was appointed Honorary Colonel of the Royal North Gloucestershire Militia (later 4th (Militia) Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment) on 28 January 1862 and retained the position until the unit's disbandment in 1908.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=25951 |date=5 July 1889 |page=25951}}</ref><ref>See his ''Crimean Journal'' – Gloucestershire Archives, record D471, catalogue NRA 4496 Kingscote. Also correspondence and diaries of his brother whilst in the Crimean held at National Army Museum, record 7311/170, catalogue NRA 20803 Kingscote. Also Correspondence with Lord Raglan held at Gwent Record Office NRA 28994.</ref><ref name = List>''Army List'', various dates.</ref><ref>Maj Wilfred Joseph Cripps (revised by Capt Hon M.H. Hicks-Beach & Maj B.N. Spraggett), ''The Royal North Gloucester Militia'', 2nd Edn, Cirencester: Wilts & Gloucestershire Standard Printing Works, 1914, Appendix A.</ref>

==Political career== Kingscote was Member of Parliament for Gloucestershire West between 1852 and 1885.<ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20090810231355/http://www.leighrayment.com/commons/Gcommons1.htm leighrayment.com]}}</ref> He was appointed Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Gloucestershire in 1856.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=21873 |date=18 April 1856 |page=1467}}</ref> The latter year he was appointed a Commissioner of Woods and Forests,<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=25951 |date=5 July 1889 |page=25951}}</ref> a post he held until 1895. He was also a justice of the peace for Gloucestershire and Wiltshire and a Trustee of the manor of Horsley.<ref>{{cite web |title=Horsley: Manor and other estates Pages 177-179 A History of the County of Gloucester: Volume 11, Bisley and Longtree Hundreds. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1976. |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/glos/vol11/pp177-179 |website=British History Online |accessdate=15 June 2020}}</ref>

==Court positions== [[Image:Robert NF Kingscote, Vanity Fair, 1880-02-14.jpg |thumb|right| Caricature by Spy published in ''Vanity Fair'', 1880.]] Kingscote was a Groom-in-Waiting to Queen Victoria between 1859 and 1866, when he resigned,<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=23152 |date=17 August 1866 |page=4593}}</ref> and as an Extra Equerry to the Prince of Wales in 1867. He served as Superintendent of the Prince of Wales's stables until 1885,<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=25468 |date=8 May 1885 |page=2104}}</ref> was appointed to the Council of the Prince of Wales in 1886,<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18897443 |title=ARRIVAL OF THE ENGLISH MAIL. |newspaper=The Maitland Mercury & Hunter River General Advertiser |location=NSW |date=28 August 1886 |accessdate=2 November 2013 |page=22 Supplement: Third Sheet to The Maitland Mercury |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> and as Receiver-General of the Duchy of Cornwall in 1888,<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=25868 |date=23 October 1888 |page=5753}}</ref> Extra Equerry to Edward VII between 1901 and 1902 and Paymaster-General of the Royal Household between 1901<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=27294 |date=15 March 1901 |page=1847}}</ref> and 1908.

He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1855, and a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1889. After the accession of King Edward VII, he was appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO) in the 1902 Birthday Honours,<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=27493 |date=7 November 1902 |pages=7161–7163 |supp=y}}</ref> and was invested with the insignia by the King at Buckingham Palace on 18 December 1902.<ref>{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Court Circular |date=19 December 1902 |page=4 |issue=36955}}</ref>

==Agriculture== Kingscote was also involved in agricultural affairs and served as President of the Royal Agricultural Society in 1878.{{citation needed|date=January 2024}}

==Family== [[File:Lady Emily Marie Kingscote (née Curzon); Nigel Richard Fitzhardinge Kingscote.jpg|thumb|Lady Emily Marie Kingscote (née Curzon); Nigel Richard Fitzhardinge Kingscote, 1860, by Camille Silvy]]

Kingscote was twice married.{{citation needed|date=January 2024}}

He married firstly the Hon Caroline Sophia Wyndham, daughter of George Wyndham, 1st Baron Leconfield, in 1851. She died in childbirth on 19 March 1852 at Drove, Westhampnett in West Sussex: her newborn son died on the same day.{{citation needed|date=January 2024}}

Kingscote married secondly Lady Emily Marie Curzon, daughter of Richard Curzon-Howe, 1st Earl Howe, in 1856. Lady Emily was a fellow courtier, serving as Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Alexandra. They had two sons and two daughters:<ref>{{cite news | title = Court Circular | date = 1879-07-17 | work = The Times | pages = 8 }}</ref><ref>Pine, L. G.. Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry, 17th edition. London, England: Burke's Peerage Ltd, 1952</ref>

* Nigel Richard Fitzhardinge Kingscote (14 February 1857 - 24 November 1921) * Harriet Maude Isabella Kingscote (March 1860 - 14 March 1906), married Arthur Wilson and was the mother of Field Marshal Henry Maitland Wilson, 1st Baron Wilson. * Winifred Ida Kingscote (24 April 1862 - 25 October 1938), married George Cholmondeley, 4th Marquess of Cholmondeley on 16 July 1879 and was the mother of George Cholmondeley, 5th Marquess of Cholmondeley. * Albert Edward Leicester Fitzhardinge Kingscote (13 May 1865 - ?)

==Death== Kingscote died in September 1908, aged 78. Lady Kingscote died in December 1910.{{citation needed|date=January 2024}}

==References== {{reflist}}

== External links ==

{{Commons category}} *[http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait.php?search=as&grp=2009%3BDorset&lDate=&LinkID=mp02551&page=1&role=sit&rNo=0 Caricature of Sir Robert Kingscote] by Leslie Ward at the National Portrait Gallery * {{Hansard-contribs | mr-robert-kingscote | Robert Kingscote }}

{{s-start}} {{s-par|uk}} {{s-bef| before = Hon. Grantley Berkeley Robert Blagden Hale }} {{s-ttl| title = Member of Parliament for Gloucestershire West | with = Robert Blagden Hale 1852–1857 | with2 = Sir John Rolt 1857–1867 | with3 = Edward Arthur Somerset 1867–1868 | with4 = Samuel Marling 1867–1874 | with5 = Hon. Randal Plunkett 1874–1880 | with6 = Lord Moreton 1880–1885 | years = 1852–1885 }} {{s-aft| after = Lord Moreton Benjamin St John Ackers }} {{s-gov}} {{succession box | title = Commissioner of Woods and Forests | years = 1885–1895 | with = George Culley 1885–1893 | with2 = Stafford Howard 1893–1895 | before = Hon. Charles Alexander Gore George Culley | after = John Francis Fortescue Horner Stafford Howard }} {{s-end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kingscote, Nigel}} Category:1830 births Category:1908 deaths Category:British Army personnel of the Crimean War Category:Scots Guards officers Category:Gloucestershire Regiment officers Category:Gloucestershire Militia officers Category:English justices of the peace Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order Category:Equerries Category:Members of the British Royal Household Category:Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Category:UK MPs 1852–1857 Category:UK MPs 1857–1859 Category:UK MPs 1859–1865 Category:UK MPs 1865–1868 Category:UK MPs 1868–1874 Category:UK MPs 1874–1880 Category:UK MPs 1880–1885