Francis Richard Charteris, 10th Earl of WemyssGCVODL (pronounced weems, rhyming with seems) (4 August 1818 – 30 June 1914), styled as Lord Elcho between 1853 and 1883, was a British Whig politician. He founded the Liberty and Property Defence League.
Charteris was a member of the Canterbury Association from 27 March 1848, and belonged to the management committee.[2]
He developed an interest in the alternative medical practice of Homeopathy, even becoming President of the London Homeopathic Hospital until his death. The strength of his belief is evidenced by his writing in March 1914:
I wish all success to Homoeopathy, to which I attach my physical well-being in great measure. When I was 90 I was asked to what I attributed my well-being at that late period of life. My answer was, "To parentage and moderation". I should have added "AND HOMOEOPATHY," with which I have been treated since I was 20.[3]
Between 1836 and 1866, he was trustee of the National Portrait Gallery. Upon his father's death in 1883, he succeeded to the Earldom of Wemyss and March. Prior to then he was known as Lord Elcho. From 1881 to 1901, he was aide-de-camp to Queen Victoria, followed by aide-de-camp to King Edward VII from 1901 to 1910. He also held the office of Deputy Lieutenant of Haddington and Selkirk.
On 29 August 1843, he married Lady Anne Frederica Anson, the second daughter of Thomas Anson, 1st Earl of Lichfield and the former Louisa Barbara Catherine Phillips (youngest daughter of Nathaniel Phillips of Slebech Hall).[2] In Edinburgh, they lived at 64 Queen Street, the only four-bay townhouse on this prestigious street in Edinburgh's First New Town.[4] Together, they were the parents of six sons and three daughters, including:[1]
Francis Charteris (1844–1870), who died unmarried.[1]
Arthur Charteris (1846–1847), who died in infancy.[1]
Alfred Walter Charteris, (1847–1873), a Lieutenant in the 71st Foot who fought in the Ashanti War and died at sea.[1]
Lady Lilian Harriet Charteris (1851–1914), who married Sir Henry Pelly, 3rd Baronet in 1872. After his death, she married Sir Henry Francis Redhead Yorke in 1882.[1]
After the death of his first wife on 22 Jul 1896, he remarried, to Grace Blackburn (c. 1857–1946) in December 1900. Grace was the third daughter of Major John Blackburn and the former Maria Warburton (a daughter of The Very ReverendCharles Warburton, Archdeacon of Tuam).[1]
Lord Wemyss died on 30 June 1914. The Dowager Countess of Wemyss died on 13 February 1946.[1]
Descendants
Through his daughter Lady Evelyn, he was a grandfather of Mary Gertrude Vesey, the second wife of Aubrey Herbert (second son of Henry Herbert, 4th Earl of Carnarvon), whose daughter Laura Herbert married the writer Evelyn Waugh, and was the mother of Auberon Waugh.[6]
^John Howard Wilson, Evelyn Waugh: A Literary Biography (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2001), p. 111 ff.: see also "Lady Evelyn Charteris", The Peerage, 30 May 2008.
