GB, 5th Earl, ref GDP/12

The Great Diary Project holds ten volumes of diaries belonging to GB, 5th Earl (1860-1949) covering ten of the years between 1903 and 1929. The 5th Earl was the grandson of GB, 3rd Earl, who passed down the order for the disastrous charge of the Light Brigade in the Crimean War in 1854, and the grandfather of RB, 7th Earl, who disappeared after the murder of his children’s nanny in 1974. The Diarist knew both his notorious grandfather and grandson: the 3rd Earl died in 1888 when the Diarist was 27 and, when the Diarist died in 1949, his grandson R was a 14 year old boy. The 5th Earl had an uncontroversial life playing golf, serving as the Conservative Party Member of Parliament for Chertsey, Surrey between 1904 and 1906 and, in 1923, gaining the rank of Colonel in a Territorial Army regiment called the London Rifle Brigade. His diaries are written in a terse, unemotional style.

Excerpt

Tuesday, 10th March 1903

Mary M left by 11 train for Cannes.

To Victoria to see her off.

Saw Middleton and Ld. Onslow 12.30 re Chertsey election. Meeting to select candidate to be held on Thursday.

Mellie and his lordship [the diarist’s father?] lunched.

To H of Lords and Commons.

[About 5 illegible words]

V [diarist’s wife Violet] & I to small dance at Buckingham Palace (350 asked) King’s Wedding Day.