Herbert Eaton, 3rd Baron Cheylesmore

Herbert Francis Eaton, 3rd Baron Cheylesmore (25 January 1848 – 29 July 1925) was a British Army officer, sportsman, and peer. He was Chairman of London County Council, chairman of the National Rifle Association and presided over courts martial during the First World War.

Early life Eaton was the son of Henry Eaton, 1st Baron Cheylesmore and his wife Charlotte Gorham Harman. His father made money in the silk trade, helped to manage insurance companies, and was MP for Coventry. Eaton was educated at Eton in Mr. Warre's house. He was nicknamed "Cheeky Eaton" and rowed bow in the winning Eton House four crew in 1866. He also a marksman and shot for Eton in the Ashburton Shield in 1866.

Military career

At the age of twenty Eaton joined the Grenadier Guards, and went to Dublin, where he was given the nickname "Brown" by his brother officers. He rowed for the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards in the 1877 Grand Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta. Vanity Fair said of him in 1891

Political career

On the death of his brother on 10 July 1902, Eaton succeeded to the title of 3rd Baron Cheylesmore, and he took the oath and made his maiden speech in the House of Lords in November that year. He shot for the House of Lords against the Commons in the annual marksmanship competition from 1906.

On 17 January 1911, Baroness Cheylesmore purchased the Cooper's Hill property at Runnymede, previously used by the Royal Indian Engineering College, for use as a family home.

In April 1912, Cheylesmore became Chairman of London County Council. In this capacity, he opened the Woolwich foot tunnel on Saturday, 26 October 1912.

First World War and after At the outbreak of the First World War, Cheylesmore became commandant of a School of Musketry at Bisley Camp, where the ranges were put at the disposal of the Army Council. The school was to train and provide instructors in musketry from those who had passed the age of military service. The School trained some 14,500 officers, NCOs and civilians for service in the Army and Territorial Force.

Of Cheylesmore it was said "He is never happier than when the boys have their week at Bisley, and he can devote a portion of his well-earned holidays to teaching the young idea to shoot. Loves rifle shooting as much as marksmen like him – which is indeed saying a very great deal. Has done more to advance the "nation of marksmen" ideal than any other nobleman in the country". and that of Captain Bowen-Colthurst for the murders of Thomas Dickson, Patrick McIntyre and Francis Sheehy-Skeffington.

Cheylesmore was honoured Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire in June 1925. He died a month later aged 77, in a motor accident, the first peer to suffer such a fate in Britain. He was buried in Highgate Cemetery in a Grade II listed mausoleum designed by the American firm of architects, Carrère and Hastings. The family was desolated and the great ballroom, known as the Pillar Hall at Coopers Hill, which was being built for the coming of age of their heir, was left unfinished. He is commemorated by a monument by Sir Edwin Lutyens in Victoria Embankment Gardens, London. The Cheylesmore Range at Bisley named after him was opened for the 1948 Summer Olympics.

His son Francis Ormond Henry Eaton, 4th Baron Cheylesmore succeeded to the Barony; on the fourth Baron's death in 1985, the Barony became extinct.