Richard Plantagenet Campbell Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, 3rd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, GCSI, PC, DL (10 September 1823 – 26 March 1889), styled Earl Temple until 1839 and Marquess of Chandos from 1839 to 1861, was a British soldier, politician and administrator of the 19th century. He was a close friend and subordinate of Benjamin Disraeli and served as the secretary of state for the colonies from 1867 to 1868 and governor of Madras from 1875 to 1880.
Buckingham was appointed Secretary of State for the Colonies when Lord Carnarvon resigned in March 1867 over the Reform Bill and served from 8 March 1867 to 1 December 1868. During this period, he was also appointed Lord Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire. As Secretary of State for the Colonies. Buckingham had to deal with the British North America Act. He also attracted controversy over his dispute with Bishop Colenso of Natal. Buckingham's tenure ended in December 1868 when the Conservative Party ministry of Benjamin Disraeli resigned. He was succeeded as Colonial Secretary by Lord Granville.[2]
On 21 July 1868, the House of Lords recognised him as the 10th Lord Kinloss in the Peerage of Scotland, which had been dormant since the death of the 6th Lord Kinloss, his three-times great-grandfather Charles Bruce, 4th Earl of Elgin, in 1747. Through the House of Lords ruling, Buckingham's father was recognised posthumously as de jure 9th Lord Kinloss, his maternal grandmother Lady Anna Brydges as de jure 8th Lady Kinloss, and his great-grandfather James Brydges, 3rd Duke of Chandos as de jure 7th Lord Kinloss. Though the lordship was the most minor of Buckingham's many titles, it was the only one that could be inherited by his daughters, and he established his right to it at a time when the likelihood emerged that he would leave no male heir.[14]
Governor of Madras
Map of Chennai City showing the Buckingham Canal. The Canal connects the Coovum and Adayar rivers.
When the Conservative Party was re-elected to power in the United Kingdom in 1874 and Disraeli became the Prime Minister once again, Buckingham was appointed Governor of the Madras Presidency, British India. Buckingham moved to Madras and took his seat on 23 November 1875.[2]
Buckingham served as the governor of Madras from 1875 to 1880. His tenure was plagued by deteriorating socio-economic and health conditions. In 1876, the Great Famine of 1876–78 broke out in Madras Presidency. By August 1877, the famine had spread all over the Presidency and over 18 million people were affected.[15] To make matters worse, the rains failed in parts of Madras and Mysore.[15] Large quantities of grain were shipped from Bengal to Madras port, and through his efforts, famine relief was distributed to 839,000 people in the Madras districts, besides 160,000 in the Bombay Districts and 151,000 in the Mysore districts.[2][15]
The Governor appealed to the principal cities of England, Scotland, Ireland and India for assistance.[15] At Buckingham's suggestion, the Lord Mayor of London collected relief funds of up to £475,000 in 1877 (£56.5 million as of 2024). Though the famine eventually came to an end in 1878, the issue had far-reaching effects.[2]
As a part of the famine relief work, Buckingham had commenced the construction of a navigation channel between Madras city and the northern part of the Madras Presidency so that transportation of supplies to the interior in cases of emergency would be easy. More than 715,000 people were employed as labourers in Madras to assist with the relief work. Opened in 1878, this canal was named after Buckingham as Buckingham Canal.[2] Buckingham Street in Penang, Malaysia was also named after him by the Tamil labourers who were brought there during the British colonial period.
Displeasure of the tribes of the northern part of the Presidency over the stringent taxation schemes of the British government erupted in the form of a major rebellion in 1879. The rebellion was eventually suppressed through a joint operation of the Madras police and army and the Hyderabad army, and the captured prisoners were sent to the Andamans. Many of the stringent taxation laws were repealed.[16]
On 30 August 1880, William Patrick Adam was appointed Governor of Madras[17] and he succeeded Buckingham in December 1880.
Detail from the painting of the Maharaja of Travancore Welcoming Buckingham and Chandos, Trivandrum 1880, painted by Raja Ravi Varma.
Detail from the painting of the Maharaja of Travancore and His Brother Welcoming Buckingham and Chandos to Trivandrum in 1880, painted by Raja Ravi Varma, 1881.
In May 1886, Buckingham succeeded Lord Redesdale as Chairman of Committees in the House of Lords. He made few speeches in the House of Lords and succeeded in paying off most of his father's debts. Gradually, towards the later part of his life his financial situation improved and by 1883, he owned 10,482 acres (4,242 ha) of land with a total value of £18,080.
Buckingham died in March 1889, aged 65, from diabetes at Chandos House, London. His illness was unexpected and not originally thought to be serious; the House of Lords postponed voting on several bills until he recovered. Within a week, however, his illness proved fatal, despite the efforts of Dr. Henry Walter Kiallmark, the family physician, and Sir James Paget, who was called in to assist.[2]
The duke was buried at the family vault in the church at Wotton House, Buckinghamshire.[4]
With no male issue, the dukedom and marquessate of Buckingham and Chandos and the Earldom of Temple became extinct. Several of his other titles survived due to available heirs: his nephew William Gore-Langton succeeded him in 1892 as fourth Earl Temple of Stowe, which was created with a special remainder; his eldest daughter, Lady Mary, succeeded him in the Scottish lordship of Kinloss, which can be held by females, as Lady Kinloss; and his distant relative Charles Lyttelton succeeded him as eighth Viscount Cobham.[2]
Family
Buckingham married firstly Caroline Harvey, daughter of Robert Harvey of Langley Park, Sheriff of Buckinghamshire, and sister of Sir Robert Harvey, 1st Baronet of Langley Park, in 1851. They had three daughters:
Caroline, Duchess of Buckingham and Chandos, died in February 1874.
Buckingham married, secondly, Alice Graham-Montgomery, daughter of Sir Graham Graham-Montgomery, 3rd Baronet, in 1885. Born in 1848, she was 25 years younger than him. In 1897, she was one of the guests at the Duchess of Devonshire's Diamond Jubilee Costume Ball.[18] There were no children from this marriage. Widowed in 1889, Alice, Dowager Duchess of Buckingham and Chandos, married the 1st Earl Egerton in 1894. She died in 1931, aged 83.
^Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf (1982). Tribes of India: the struggle for survival. University of California Press. pp. 37–38. ISBN0520043154.
^"Current Foreign Topics"(PDF). The New York Times. 31 August 1880. Archived(PDF) from the original on 7 May 2022. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
^Walker, Dave (2 January 2014). "Costume Ball 4: Ladies only". Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Archived from the original on 18 May 2014. Retrieved 17 May 2014.
Further reading
Beckett, J. V. (1994). The Rise and Fall of the Grenvilles, Dukes of Buckingham and Chandos 1710 to 1921. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN9780719037566. OCLC28498778.
Mitter, Partha (1994). Art and Nationalism in Colonial India, 1850–1922. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 179–218. ISBN9780521443548. OCLC28024531.
Temple Nugent Brydges Chandos Grenville Buckingham and Chandos (3d duke of), Richard Plantagenet Campbell (1921). The Ducal Estate of Stowe: Sale of the Contents of the Mansion, 5–28 July 1921. Stowe, UK: Jackson Stops; F. C. Williams. OCLC171651206.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
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