Leicester FitzGerald Charles Stanhope, 5th Earl of Harrington, CB (2 September 1784 – 7 September 1862),[1] styled The Honourable Leicester Stanhope until 1851, was an English peer and soldier.
From late 1817 to 1818, Stanhope and his regiment took part in the Third Anglo-Maratha War. On 14 October 1818, he was appointed a Companion of the Bath for his service in the conflict.[10] He resigned as quartermaster on 29 March 1821[11] and purchased an unattached lieutenant-colonelcy on 26 June 1823.[12] He was brevetted colonel on 10 January 1837.[13]
He is known as a worker with Lord Byron in the cause of Greek independence, although while he was in Greece in 1823 and 1824 his relations with Byron were not altogether harmonious. He wrote A Sketch of the History and Influence of the Press in British India (1823), and Greece, in 1823 and 1824.[14]
Personal life and death
On 23 April 1831, at St James's Church, Piccadilly, he married Elizabeth Green, daughter of William Green[1] and Ann Rose Hall, both of Jamaica. They had four children:
In 1852 Stanhope acquired a plot of land formerly belonging to the kitchen garden of Kensington Palace: he constructed Harrington House (or No. 13 Kensington Palace Gardens), which was built in his favourite gothic style, at the cost of £15,000.[15] Harrington House was owned by the family until the First World War; Since 1930 Harrington House has been home to the Russian Embassy.[15] The exterior of the house was designed by Decimus Burton, following plans sketched by the Earl.[16] Works were carried under the supervision of Charles James Richardson, who was the surveyor to the Earl's extensive South Kensington estate.[16] Details and the final plans are thought to have been left to Richardson; he did, however, acknowledge the "great measure" the Earl was involved in the design.[16] The house's unorthodox architecture was widely criticised, including by Richardson; Lord Harrington, however, thought it to be "a house without a fault".[16]
