Earl of Radnor

Jacob, 6th Earl of Radnor (1901 –1926). After two years' service as assistant private secretary to the right Hon. Henry Chaplin, from 1890 to 1892, he was elected to theHouse of Commons at the 1892 general election as Member of Parliament for the Wilton division of Wiltshire, and held the seat until he succeeded to the peerage in 1900. In November 1901 he was elected Mayor of Folkestone for the following year, and when he vacated the office the following year he donated a sum equal to the salary to the Victoria Hospital. During his year as Mayor, he received the German Emperor Wilhelm IIon his visit toShorncliffeto inspect a cavalry regiment in November 1902. Beyond political life, he was an officer in the 4th (Volunteer) Battalion, theWiltshire Regiment. He sawactive servicein South Africa in 1900 when he volunteered to serve in a company attached to a regular battalion during the Second Boer War. Leaving Southampton for Cape Town in February 1900, he returned later the same year as he succeeded to the title on the death of his father. He was promoted to the rank of LtCol and brevet colonel commanding the 4th Battalion, and later served in India from 1914 to 1917, where he was BrigadierGeneralof the Dehra Dun Brigade. In 1918 he was Director of Agricultural Production for the British Expeditionary Force.

He also chaired a Royal Commission on the Care and Control of the FeebleMinded, between 1904 and 1908. On 27 June 1919, he was appointed a deputy lieutenant of Wiltshire. Lord Radnor served as Governor of theFrench Hospital. Successive Earls of Radnor were governors of the hospital from the eighteenth century to 2015.

He was installed both as Grand Superintendent and Provincial Grand Master on 3rd July 1901 in Salisbury. Newspapers declared that some two to three hundred masons were present.

What a splendid idea! The PGL of Derbyshire have a stone dedicated to brethren who fell in both wars. Sadly, I’m sure it will be undated with future conflicts.