Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne

Claude George Bowes-Lyon, 14th and 1st Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne (14 March 1855 – 7 November 1944), styled as Lord Glamis from 1865 to 1904, was a British peer and landowner who was the father of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother and the maternal grandfather of Queen Elizabeth II.

Biography Early life Claude George Bowes-Lyon was born on 14 March 1855 in Lowndes Square, London, the son of Claude Bowes-Lyon, 13th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, and the former Frances Smith. His younger brother, Patrick Bowes-Lyon, was a tennis player who won the 1887 Wimbledon doubles.

After being educated at Eton College, he received a commission in the 2nd Life Guards in 1876 and served for six years until the year after his marriage. He was an active member of the Territorial Army and served as honorary colonel of the 4th/5th Battalion of the Black Watch.

He was made Lord Lieutenant of Angus, an office he resigned when his daughter became queen. He had a keen interest in forestry and was one of the first to grow larch from seed in Britain. His estates had a large number of smallholders, and he had a reputation for being unusually kind to his tenants. His contemporaries described him as an unpretentious man, often seen in "an old macintosh tied with a piece of twine". He worked his own land and enjoyed physical labour on the grounds of his estates; visitors often mistook him for a common labourer. He made his own cocoa for breakfast, and always had a jug of water by his place at dinner so he could dilute his own wine.

London homes Prior to 1906 Lord Strathmore and his family used a flat in Grosvenor Gardens as their London residence; following his succession to the Earldom in 1904, in 1906 he acquired the lease of a large townhouse at No. 20 St James's Square from Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 7th Baronet, which remained as the family's London residence until 1920. Strathmore was elected as one of the Trustees of St James's Square in 1908. The family were residing at Bruton Street when in London by March 1922. Strathmore sold the lease of 17 Bruton Street in early 1929; the Evening Standard reported on 26 March that the Strathmores would vacate the property in mid-April of that year, and that the reported purchase price of the house's freehold was £26,000.

By January 1930 Lord and Lady Strathmore had taken a new London residence at No. 84 Eaton Square, which they continued to occupy until Lady Strathmore's death in 1938. During the late 1930s Lord Strathmore also leased an apartment in Cumberland Mansions, Marylebone.

Marriage and family He married Cecilia Cavendish-Bentinck on 16 July 1881 in Petersham, Surrey. The couple had ten children. The Earl would part his moustache in a theatrical, but courteous gesture, before kissing them:

Name Birth DeathAge NotesThe Hon. Violet Hyacinth Bowes-Lyon17 April 188217 October 189311 yearsShe died from diphtheria and was buried at St Andrew's Church, Ham. She was never styled 'Lady' because she died before her father succeeded to the Earldom.Lady Mary Frances Bowes-Lyon30 August 18838 February 196177 yearsShe married Sidney Elphinstone, 16th Lord Elphinstone; in 1910, and had issue.Patrick Bowes-Lyon, Lord Glamis25 May 194964 yearsHe married Lady Dorothy Osborne (daughter of George Osborne, 10th Duke of Leeds) in 1908, and had issue. In 1944, he became 15th and 2nd Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne.Lieutenant The Hon. John Bowes-Lyon1 April 18867 February 193043 yearsKnown as Jock, he married The Hon. Fenella Hepburn-Stuart-Forbes-Trefusis (daughter of Charles Hepburn-Stuart-Forbes-Trefusis, 21st Baron Clinton) in 1914, and had issue.The Hon. Alexander Francis Bowes-Lyon14 April 188719 October 191124 yearsKnown as Alec, Captain The Hon. Fergus Bowes-Lyon18 April 188926 yearsHe married Lady Christian Norah Dawson-Damer (daughter of George Dawson-Damer, 5th Earl of Portarlington) in 1914, and had issue. He was killed in the early stages of the Battle of Loos.Lady Rose Constance Bowes-Lyon6 May 189017 November 196777 yearsShe married William Leveson-Gower, 4th Earl Granville in 1916, and had issue.Lieutenant-Colonel The Hon. Michael Claude Hamilton Bowes-Lyon1 October 18931 May 195359 yearsKnown as Mickie, He married Elizabeth Cator in 1928. She was a bridesmaid at the wedding of Prince Albert, Duke of York, and Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon on 26 April 1923. Their children were Fergus Bowes-Lyon, 17th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, Lady Mary Colman, Lady Patricia Tetley and Albemarle Bowes-Lyon. He died of asthma and heart failure in Bedfordshire.Lady Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon4 August 190030 March 2002101 yearsIn 1923, she married the Duke of York, the future King George VI, and had issue, including Queen Elizabeth II. She became queen consort in 1936, and in later life, after the death of her husband, she was known as Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.The Hon. Sir David Bowes-Lyon2 May 190213 September 196159 yearsHe married Rachel Clay in 1929, and had issue.

Father of the Queen Consort Despite the Earl's reservations about royalty, in April 1923, his youngest daughter, Elizabeth, married Prince Albert, Duke of York, the second son of King George V and Queen Mary. Lord Strathmore was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order to mark the marriage. His granddaughter, Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth II), was born at his home, 17 Bruton Street, Mayfair in April 1926. In 1928, he was made a Knight of the Thistle.

In 1936, his son-in-law became king and assumed the name George VI. As the father of the new Queen, he was created a Knight Companion of the Garter and the 1st Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, a United Kingdom peerage in the Coronation Honours of 1937 (although he was the 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, which was a Scottish title). This enabled him to sit in the House of Lords as an earl (because members of the peerage of Scotland did not automatically sit in the House of Lords, he had previously sat only as a baron through the Barony of Bowes created for his father). Later in life, the Earl became extremely deaf. Lord Strathmore died of bronchitis on 7 November 1944, aged 89, at Glamis Castle. (Lady Strathmore had died in 1938.

He outlived four of his ten children and was succeeded by his son, Patrick Bowes-Lyon, Lord Glamis.

Arms