Lord Augustus Loftus Explained

Honorific-Prefix:	The Right Honourable
Lord Augustus Loftus
Honorific-Suffix:	GCB
Order:	15th Governor of New South Wales
Term Start:	4 August 1879
Term End:	9 November 1885
Predecessor:	Hercules Robinson
Birth Name:	Lord Augustus William Frederick Spencer Loftus
Birth Date:	4 October 1817
Birth Place:	Bristol, England
Death Place:	Surrey, England
Spouse:	Emma Maria Greville (m. 1845)
Children:	5

Lord Augustus William Frederick Spencer Loftus, (4 October 1817 – 7 March 1904), was a British diplomat and colonial administrator. He was Ambassador to Prussia from 1865 to 1868, to the North German Confederation from 1868 to 1871 and to the Russian Empire from 1871 to 1879 and Governor of New South Wales from 1879 to 1885.

Background

Loftus was born in Bristol, England, the fourth son of John Loftus, 2nd Marquess of Ely, by Anna Maria Dashwood, daughter of Sir Henry Dashwood, 3rd Baronet. He was privately educated.^[1]

Career

Loftus was appointed by Lord Palmerston to the diplomatic service in 1837 as attaché at Berlin. He was attaché at Stuttgart in 1844. He was secretary to Sir Stratford Canning in 1848, and after serving as secretary of legation at Stuttgart (1852), and Berlin (1853), was envoy at Vienna (1858), Berlin (1860) and Munich (1862).

He was subsequently Ambassador at Berlin from 1865 to 1868, to the North German Confederation from 1868 to 1871 and to Saint Petersburg from 1871 to 1879.^[2]

He then served as Governor of New South Wales from 1879 to 1885.^[3] He was appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath in 1866 and sworn of the Privy Council in 1868.

Marriage and issue

Loftus married a distant cousin, Emma Maria Greville, daughter of Vice-Admiral Henry Francis Greville, in 1845. They had three sons and two surviving daughters. One of their sons would have succeeded George Loftus, 7th Marquess of Ely (1903–1969) as the 8th Marquess of Ely, but all three predeceased their cousin.^[4]

• Unnamed daughter (17 August 1846), stillborn at Baden-Baden^[5]
• Evelyn Ann Frances Loftus (4 December 1847 – 28 September 1861), died at Baden-Baden aged 13^[6]
• Henry John Loftus (8 November 1849 – 4 October 1924), married Sarah Josephine Leech, daughter of William Leech of Philadelphia
• Capt. Augustus Petham Brooke Loftus (6 July 1851 – 25 March 1924), married in 1885 Ethel Adelaïde Labertouche, daughter of Peter Paul Labertouche; had one son:
  • Guy Alvo Greville Loftus (26 August 1899 – 7 August 1965), heir presumptive to the Marquessate of Ely from 1935 until his death^[7]
• Emma Anne Caroline Bloomfield Loftus (15 February 1855 – 21 August 1937); married first in 1873 Hon. Frederick Arthur Wellesley, son of Henry Wellesley, 1st Earl Cowley (divorced 1882); married second in 1903 ^[8]
• Montagu Egerton Loftus (22 January 1860 – 27 November 1934), married Margaret Julia Agnes Fairfax Astell (died 1900), daughter of John Harvey Astell; and secondly in 1904 Colina Marion Hale Monro

Lady Augustus died in January 1902. Loftus survived her by two years and died in Surrey, England, in March 1904, aged 86.

The town of Emmaville, New South Wales, was named after Emma in 1882.^[9]

Further reading

• Encyclopedia: Loftus, Lord Augustus William Frederick Spencer (1817–1904) . Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . 2004 . Ward . A. W. . Oxford University Press . 10.1093/ref:odnb/34586 .
• Loftus, A. (1892). "The diplomatic reminiscences of Lord Augustus Loftus. 1837–1862"^[10]
• Loftus, A. (1894). "The diplomatic reminiscences of Lord Augustus Loftus. 1862–1879"

Notes and References

1. Sumner . B. H. . 1934 . Lord Augustus Loftus and the Eastern Crisis of 1875-1878 . Cambridge Historical Journal . 4 . 3 . 283–295 . 10.1017/S1474691300000640 . 3020671 . 1474-6913.
2. Loftus, Augustus William Frederick Spencer.
3. Australian Dictionary of Biography Online Edition http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A050117b.htm Retrieved 13 June 2010.
4. Book: Burke . Sir Bernard . Burke . Ashworth P. . Bernard Burke . A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Peerage and Baronetage, the Privy Council, Knightage, and Companionage . 1934 . . London . 2066 . 28 September 2024 . I . en.
5. News: Births . . 1 September 1846. 2.
6. News: Deaths . 5 October 2024 . Caledonian Mercury . 5 October 1861 . 4.
7. News: Ontario Man Heir to Irish Marquess . 5 October 2024 . The Sun Times . 12 August 1965 . Ontario, Canada . 3. subscription.
8. Hesse, Germany, Deaths, 1851–1958
9. David Klune and Ken Turner, The Governors of New South Wales, 1788-2010, The Federation Press, 2010, pp. 317–329.
10. Review of The Diplomatic Reminiscences of Lord Augustus Loftus, P.C., G.C.B., 1837–1862. The Athenaeum. 3387. 24 September 1892. 409–410.