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The Viscount Churchill
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The Viscount Churchill by Leslie Ward, 1904.
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| Lord-in-waiting | |
| In office 1889–1892 | |
| Preceded by | The Earl of Hopetoun |
| Succeeded by | The Lord Playfair |
| In office 1895–1905 | |
| Preceded by | The Lord Camoys |
| Succeeded by | The Lord Denman |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Victor Albert Francis Charles Spencer (1864-10-23)23 October 1864 |
| Died | 3 January 1934(1934-01-03) (aged 69) |
| Spouses |
Lady Verena Maud Lowther
(m. 1887; div. 1927)
Christine McRae Sinclair
(m. 1927) |
| Children | 6 |
| Parent(s) | Francis Spencer, 2nd Baron Churchill Jane Spencer, Baroness Churchill |
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Major Victor Albert Francis Charles Spencer, 1st Viscount Churchill GCVO JP (23 October 1864 – 3 January 1934), known as the Hon. Victor Albert Spencer until 1886 and as The Lord Churchill between 1886 and 1902, was a British peer and courtier. He was from the Spencer family.
Spencer was born at 32, Albemarle Street, London, the son of Francis Spencer, 2nd Baron Churchill, and his wife Jane (née Conyngham). He was a Page of HonourtoQueen Victoria from 1876 to 1881, and in 1886 he succeeded to his father's title of Baron Churchill. He was a grandson of Francis Spencer, 1st Baron Churchill.[1]
Educated at Eton College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, he was commissioned into the Coldstream Guards[1][2] in 1884 as a lieutenant, staying in the Guards until 1889.[3]
On 12 July 1905 he was commissioned as a Major in the part-time Oxfordshire Imperial Yeomanry (Queen's Own Oxfordshire Hussars), which his father and grandfather had commanded, and in which several of his Spencer-Churchill kinsmen also served.[1][4] He was later a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Territorial Army Reserve and served as a temporary Colonel in Home Defence from 1915 to 1918.[1][3]
For Edward VII's coronation he served as lord chamberlain, and at the coronation of George V, he was Master of the Robes.[3] He was acting Master of the Buckhounds between 1900 and 1901 during the tenure of Charles Cavendish, the office holder, while Cavendish was in South Africa.[3][5]
Spencer was a Lord in Waiting from 1889 to 1892 and 1895 to 1905 in both of Salisbury's governments and was created Viscount Churchill, of Rolleston, in the County of Leicester, on 15 July 1902[1][6] (it had already been announced in the Coronation Honours list the previous month that he would be created a Viscount[7]).
He was chairman and director of several transport companies, including the Great Western Railway 1908–34 and was the longest serving chairman of the company.[2] He was also a director of the British India Steamship Company, P&O and the Grand Union Canal.[1][3]
Lord Churchill married Lady Verena Maud Lowther, daughter of Henry Lowther, 3rd Earl of Lonsdale, at Cottesmore, Rutland, on 1 January 1887. They had four children:[1][2]
When she wished to divorce Lord Churchill, King Edward forbade it, to avoid a scandal among his social circle. Instead she disappeared in 1909 taking their son, aged 19, and two daughters, aged 13 and 8, with her. Lord Churchill placed an anonymous advertisement seeking information about his family's whereabouts, but the scandal soon became public. In 1927 he obtained a divorce on the grounds of desertion.[3][8] Churchill married as his second wife Christine McRae Sinclair, daughter of William Sinclair. They had two children:[1]
Lord Churchill died of pneumonia on 3 January 1934.[2]
Kingdom of Prussia: Knight 1st class of the Order of the Crown – 1899 – in connection with the visit of Emperor Wilhelm II to the United Kingdom.[11]| Court offices | ||
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| Preceded by | Page of Honour 1876–1881 |
Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | His Majesty's Representative at Ascot 1901–1934 |
Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Lord-in-waiting 1889–1892 |
Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Lord-in-waiting 1895–1905 |
Succeeded by |
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
| New creation | Viscount Churchill 1902–1934 |
Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Baron Churchill 1886–1934 | |
