Charles Sackville-West, 6th Earl De La Warr

Major-General Charles Richard Sackville-West, 6th Earl De La Warr, (13 November 1815 – 23 April 1873) was a British Army officer. He was a peer for the last years of his life, succeeding his father in 1869. De La Warr committed suicide by drowning himself in the River Cam four year later; unmarried, his title and estates were inherited by his brother.

Early life Sackville-West was the second son of George Sackville-West, 5th Earl De La Warr, and Lady Elizabeth Sackville, daughter of John Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset. He was notably brother of: George West, Viscount Cantelupe (whom he outlived) Reginald Sackville, 7th Earl De La Warr (who outlived and inherited the key estates) Elizabeth Russell, Duchess of Bedford Mortimer Sackville-West, 1st Baron Sackville, and Lionel Sackville-West, 2nd Baron Sackville.

He was educated at Harrow.

Career Sackville-West served in the British Army and was appointed aide-de-camp and military secretary to Sir Hugh Gough in India in 1845. He fought at the Battle of Sobraon in 1846 during the First Anglo-Sikh War. In 1850 he became known by the courtesy title Lord West after the untimely death of his elder brother, Lord Cantelupe who was likewise unmarried.

Promoted to major in 1852 and to lieutenant-colonel in 1855, he served in the Crimean War. He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1855 and an Officer of the Legion of Honour in 1856 and awarded the Order of the Medjidie in 1858. In 1864 he was promoted to major-general. He succeeded his father in the earldom in 1869.

In 1871 he was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB).

Death Lord Delaware died in April 1873, aged 57, by drowning himself in the river Cam.

The reason for his suicide was revealed in one of the letters he sent to his agent. He blamed himself for the death of his mistress Annie Nethercote (b.1840), to whom he had been very attached . Nethercote had died the previous year from an inflammation of the stomach and syncope as a result of her alcoholism. Delaware was very distressed by her death.

Unmarried, he was succeeded in the earldom by his brother, Reginald, Lord Buckhurst.

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