Captain Arthur Granville Soames OBE (12 October 1886 – 6 July 1962) was a British Army officer in the Coldstream Guards and landowner.
Early life
He was born on 12 October 1886 in Wingerworth, Derbyshire, England.[1] He was the only son of Harold Soames (1855-1918), brewer, later of Gray Rigg, Lilliput, Dorset.
Soames's uncle, Harold's brother, Arthur Gilstrap Soames, owned Sheffield Park, but he and his wife had only one daughter, Sylvia Soames.[2] He later left Sheffield Park to Soames.[3]
Soames's mother was Katherine Mary (1851-1932), a daughter of George Hill.[4]
Soames was the brother of Olave St. Clair Baden-Powell (1889–1977), World Chief Guide.
On Christmas night 1918, his father, Harold Soames, committed suicide by walking into the sea at Lilliput, Poole, Dorset; his sister Auriol Edith Davidson also committed suicide, by throwing herself under a train at Chestnut, Hertfordshire on 5 April 1919.[2] She was survived by her three small daughters, aged five, three, and three months.[2]
Career
Soames was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant into the Coldstream Guards on 16 August 1905, promoted to Lieutenant on 21 September 1907,[5] and served with the regiment during the First World War.[6]
In November 1926, Soames was appointed as Sheriff of Buckinghamshire, and was then living at Ashwell Manor, Tyler's Green, Penn, Buckinghamshire.[7] He was appointed again the following year, 1927.[8]
Personal life
On 20 December 1913 in London Soames married to Hope Mary Woodbine-Parish (b. 2 Aug 1893 in Westminster), daughter of businessman Charles Woodbyne Parish, of Ennismore Gardens, Kensington. Together, they had two daughters and a son:
- Sanchia Mary (Bunty) Soames (21 Sept 1914 - 1 Jan 1953)
- Diana Katherine (Dido) Soames (24 Sept 1917 - 4 Feb 1997),[9] m. 1939 Lt.Col. Hugh William Cairns, M.C.
- (Arthur) Christopher (John) Soames (12 Oct 1920 - Sept 1987) who married Mary, daughter of Winston Churchill
They divorced in 1934, and Arthur Soames remarried twice:
- On 23 Oct 1934 in London to Annette Constance Jardine[10] née Fraser (b. Sep 1876, East Grinstead, Sussex)
- On 16 Mar 1948 in Westminster to Audrey Alma nee Humphreys (16 July 1900 - 1990).[11] In Q1 1923 in Reading she had married Vernon H Rivers,[11] but they divorced, and he married again, in 1934[11] and in 1943.[11] In Q2 1937 in Westminster she had married Ronald F A Sloane-Stanley,[11] who died on the Isle of Wight in Q3 1948, aged 80.[11]
In 1934, Soames inherited the mansion and estate of Sheffield Park, Sussex, from his father's childless brother, Arthur Gilstrap Soames, who had purchased it in 1909,;[3] Soames sold the estate in 1953.[12] He also disposed of part of his library.[13]
He died in a London hospital on 6 July 1962 aged 75.[14]
References
- ^ "The Derbyshire childhood of Olave Lady Baden-Powell" by Jill Armstrong
- ^ a b c "Home". freebmd.org.uk.
- ^ a b Shirley Nicholson, Nymans: The Story of a Sussex Garden, 1992, pp. 53, 122
- ^ Burke's Landed Gentry 14th ed., ed. Alfred T. Butler, p. 1632
- ^ Crisp, Frederick Arthur, ed. (1914). Visitation of England and Wales. p. 93. Retrieved 6 February 2018.
- ^ "Ministry of Defence".
- ^ "No. 33222". The London Gazette. 19 November 1926. p. 7471.
- ^ "No. 33330". The London Gazette. 18 November 1927. p. 7331.
- ^ Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage 2003, vol. 1, p. 640
- ^ Marriage notice in The Times, 25 October 1934, p. 1, reads: SOAMES : JARDINE.---On Oct. 23, 1934, by the Rev. Dr. Geikie-Cobb, D.D., CAPTAIN A. GRANVILLE SOAMES to ANNETTE CONSTANCE, widow of ROBERT JARDINE.
- ^ a b c d e f https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/search.pl
- ^ "Additional Manuscripts, Catalogue EE".
- ^ Lot 107: Churchill, Sir Winston. The Second World War, Cassell & Co., Ltd, 1948-1954 8vo, First English Edition, 6 volumes, Family Presentation Copy, Volume 1 Inscribed By Churchill In Year Of Publication, Volume 2 Inscribed "To Arthur from Winston 1949” invaluable.com, accessed 23 September 2022
- ^ Death notice in The Times, Saturday, 7 Jul 1962, p.10
This page was last edited on 12 May 2024, at 16:25