Claude Lowther

Colonel Claude William Henry Lowther (26 June 1870 – 16 June 1929) was an English Conservative politician.

Early life Lowther was the only son of Capt. Francis William Lowther and Louise Beatrice de Fonblanque; His sister was the tennis player Toupie Lowther, whom he encouraged to form an all-female unit supporting the French Army during the First World War.

He was educated at Rugby School and had a brief diplomatic career as honorary attaché at Madrid from 1894.

Career He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Westmorland and Cumberland Yeomanry of the British Army on 17 May 1899. Following the outbreak of the Second Boer War later that year, he signed up for service with the Imperial Yeomanry, where on 3 February 1900 he was appointed a Lieutenant in the 8th Battalion. During a skirmish at Faber's Put on 30 March 1900, he and two troopers rescued two wounded men while under heavy Boer Fire, an act for which he was unsuccessfully recommended for the Victoria Cross (VC) by Sir Charles Warren.

He was defeated in 1906 by the Liberal candidate, Geoffrey Howard. After his defeat, he became a vigorous campaigner against socialism and for the preservation of Empire. Lowther favoured tariff reform and "national efficiency", including state welfare. From 1908 until 1911, he was chairman of the Anti-Socialist Union. Defeated again in Eskdale at the January 1910 election, he regained the seat in December 1910.

Personal life Aside from his political career, Lowther was also a connoisseur and a student of the theatre, and a friend of Herbert Beerbohm Tree. Lowther's play The Gordian Knot was presented at Her Majesty's Theatre in 1903, but was not at all successful. The episode, however, did not bring about a breach between Lowther and Tree. The inhabitable parts were refurnished and stocked with objets d'art.

His health gradually failed, and Lowther died at his London home in 1929. After his death, the collection he had assembled at Herstmonceux was sold off, and the castle itself sold to Reginald Lawson.