George Brudenell-Bruce, 6th Marquess of Ailesbury

George William James Chandos Brudenell-Bruce, 6th Marquess of Ailesbury, (21 May 1873 – 4 August 1961), styled Earl of Cardigan between 1894 and 1911, was a British peer and an officer of the auxiliary forces. He went by the name Chandos throughout his life - he signed this name to childhood letters, and family correspondence refers to him so . His hand-written memoirs, which are held at the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre , supply many details about his life.

Background and education Brudenell-Bruce was the son of Henry Brudenell-Bruce, 5th Marquess of Ailesbury and Georgiana Sophia Maria Pinckney (1848-1902). He spent his childhood at Tawstock Court, near Barnstaple in Devon, a grand house rented by his mother's family, who owned a banking business. From the age of 10 he attended school at Gore Court, near Sittingbourne in Kent, and from the age of 13, Westminster School. Persistently unhappy at Westminster, he writes in his memoir of his relief at a bout of typhoid fever forcibly ending his time there aged 16.

He succeeded to the title Lord Cardigan on his father's accession to the marquessate on 10 April 1894, and succeeded his father in the marquessate on the latter's death on 10 March 1911.

Career Lord Ailesbury served in the 3rd (Highland Borderers Militia) Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders; the Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry; the Middlesex Yeomanry; the Wiltshire Regiment; and the Royal Field Artillery

He was promoted to the rank of captain in the Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry on 3 September 1898, supernumerary to the establishment. He fought with the regiment in the Second Boer War, for which he was mentioned in dispatches, and was appointed a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order in November 1900. He was confirmed as a captain on the establishment in May 1902. He fought in the Great War, during which he was again mentioned in dispatches and he received the Territorial Decoration for his service in the Territorial Force. Postwar he commanded 220 (Wiltshire) Battery in 55th (Wessex) Brigade, Royal Field Artillery. and was a Justice of the Peace.

He was involved in conservative and right-wing politics and during the 1920s was a member of the reactionary British Fascists. He seems to have later thought better of fascist affiliations, and in 1943 wrote regarding Oswald Mosley that Mosley had been "bitten with the virus of Fascism".

Chandos was involved in the process of converting the family estate and its surrounding forest into a munitions depot and military base during the Second World War. Despite his age (66 in 1939), Brudenell-Bruce was a member of his local Home Guard until 1944.

Family He was married three times. Firstly he married Caroline Sydney Anne Madden (1866-1941), known as Sydney, daughter of John Madden (1836-1902) and Caroline Clements (1842-1914) of Hilton Park, County Monaghan, on 21 March 1903 at St Mark's, Mayfair, whom he had met while travelling to India in 1899. They had three children: Cedric Brudenell-Bruce, 7th Marquess of Ailesbury (1904–1974) Lady Ursula Daphne Brudenell-Bruce (1905–1991), who married Alfred Thomas Taylor (1906-1976) in 1944 Lady Rosemary Enid Brudenell-Bruce (1907–1985), who never married. Sydney died on 5 May 1941 after a long period of ill health.

Secondly he married Mabel Irene Lindsay (1907-1954), known as Irene, daughter of John Samuel Lindsay (1873-1940) and Mary Ellen Guest (1873-1911), on 21 February 1945. Irene had been one of Sydney's nurses. Together, they moved away from Wiltshire, first to London, and then in 1946 to St Saviour, Jersey. Irene died of throat cancer on 26 June 1954, aged only 47.

Thirdly, he married on 9 July 1955 Alice Maude Emily Pinhey (1871-1960), known as Maude, daughter of Captain John Forbes Pinhey (1843-1876) and Mary Anne Charlotte Worsley (1845-1925), and widow of John Henry Arthur Boyce (1864-1911), Francis Shand Byam Johnson (1869-1938), and Rowland Money (1875-1953). Chandos and Maude had originally courted in the 1890s before marrying other people. Maude died on 9 February 1960.