Charles Gordon-Lennox, 7th Duke of Richmond

Charles Henry Gordon-Lennox, 7th Duke of Richmond, 2nd Duke of Gordon (27 December 1845 – 18 January 1928), styled Lord Settrington until 1860 and Earl of March between 1860 and 1903, was a British politician and peer.

Early life Styled Lord Settrington from birth, he was born at Portland Place, London, on 27 December 1845. He was the eldest son of Charles Henry Gordon-Lennox, 6th Duke of Richmond and Frances Harriett Greville (1824–1887). His elder sister, Lady Caroline Gordon-Lennox, who never married, acted as chatelaine of Goodwood after their mother's death in 1887. His younger siblings were Lord Algernon Gordon-Lennox (who married Blanche Maynard and was the father of Ivy Cavendish-Bentinck, Duchess of Portland), Capt. Lord Francis Gordon-Lennox (who died unmarried), Lady Florence Gordon-Lennox (who died unmarried), and Lord Walter Gordon-Lennox (who married Alice Ogilvie-Grant). March and his brother, Lord Algernon Gordon-Lennox, both served in the Second Boer War, with March commanding his battalion in South Africa from its arrival in March 1901 until its return to England in June 1902 following the Peace of Vereeniging. For his service in the war, he was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the October 1902 South African Honours list.

Lord March was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Elginshire on 27 August 1902, and also served as Lord Lieutenant of Banffshire from November 1903, after his father's death.

On 27 September 1903, Gordon-Lennox succeeded his father as 7th Duke of Richmond and Lennox and 2nd Duke of Gordon (2nd creation) as well as the dukedom of Aubigny, which had been conferred on his ancestor Louise de Kérouaille, Duchess of Portsmouth, by French King Louis XIV. After his retirement from the militia, he was appointed honorary colonel of his battalion on 27 May 1906.

Charles Henry Gordon-Lennox, 8th Duke of Richmond (1870–1935), who married Hilda Madeline Brassey, eldest surviving daughter of Henry Brassey, MP, of Preston Hall, in 1893. Lady Evelyn Amy Gordon-Lennox (1872–1922), who married Sir John Cotterell, 4th Baronet, in 1896. Lord Bernard Charles Gordon-Lennox (1878–1914), a major in the British Army who married Hon. Evelyn Loch, second daughter of Henry Loch, 1st Baron Loch, in 1907.

The Duchess of Richmond died in November 1887, aged 24. The duke remained a widower until his death in London on 18 January 1928, aged 82. He was buried in Chichester Cathedral and was succeeded in the dukedom by his eldest son, Charles. His interests in the family-entrusted lands were proved at £1731 in 1929. In 1930, the 8th Duke was forced to sell "a considerable number of pictures and books from Goodwood House and Gordon Castle, his Scottish seat near Fochabers" due to the "heavy succession duties and increasing taxation".

Ancestry