Victor Brougham, 4th Baron Brougham and Vaux explained

Honorific-Prefix:The Right Honourable
The Lord Brougham and Vaux
Office9:Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
Term Start9:24 May 1927
Term End9:20 June 1967
Hereditary peerage
Predecessor9:The 3rd Baron Brougham and Vaux
Successor9:The 5th Baron Brougham and Vaux
Birth Name:Victor Henry Peter Brougham
Birth Date:23 October 1909
Children:3, including Michael
Relatives:Henry Brougham, 3rd Baron Brougham and Vaux (grandfather)

Victor Henry Peter Brougham, 4th Baron Brougham and Vaux (23 October 1909 – 20 June 1967), was a British peer and politician.

Background and family

Brougham's father, Henry Brougham, was the son and heir of the 3rd Baron Brougham and Vaux, but predeceased his father, dying just 20 days before his father in May 1927. Victor Brougham succeeded to the title upon his grandfather's death on 24 May 1927.

Brougham was married three times,

  1. Valerie Violet French[1] (m. 1931, divorced 1934), granddaughter of Sir John French. They had one son, Julian, who was killed while on active service in Malaya in 1952, at the age of 19.
  2. Jean Follet (m. 1935, divorced 1942). They had two sons: Michael (1938-2023), the future 5th Baron, and David (1940–2012).
  3. Edith Ellaline Teichmann (m. 1942), previously married to Richard Hart-Davis. She was one of a series of society beauties photographed as classical figures by Madame Yevonde.[2]

Life and career

Brougham made his maiden speech in the House of Lords on 8 May 1934, in a debate on Parliamentary Reform, making a strong defence of democracy, concluding "Unless our Parliamentary system adapts itself very soon to the needs of the day, and unless it consciously reforms itself so as to carry out the functions demanded of Governments in modern circumstances, it will be done away with here as surely as it has disappeared in Russia, Germany and Italy."[3]

He fought in the Second World War and gained the rank of 2nd Lieutenant in the Scots Guards. After the war, he served in the Territorial Army, reaching the rank of major.

Lord Brougham enjoyed gambling; in 1932, he auctioned artefacts from Brougham Hall to pay off his debts, and in 1934, the Hall itself was sold.[4] In August 1953, Lord Brougham was declared bankrupt after having spent more than £125 000 on gambling, failed stock market speculation and a failed attempt to become a farmer. In court, he stated that he tried to get work to repay his debts, but working as manual labour, his salary seldom exceeded £10/month, the situation had got out of hands.[5]

Arms

Escutcheon:Gules a chevron between three lucies hauriant Argent.
Crest:A dexter arm in armour embowed Proper the hand holding a lucy fessewise Argent and charged on the elbow with a rose Gules.
Supporters:Dexter a lion Vert armed and langued Gules gorged with a vaux collar checky Or and of the second, sinister a stag Argent attired and unguled Or holding in the mouth a rose Gules barbed and seeded Vert.
Motto:Pro Rege Lege Grege (For The King The Law and the People)[6]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Violet Valerie Brougham (née French), Lady Brougham and Vaux (later Mrs Kindersley). National Portrait Gallery.
  2. News: Madame Yevonde's Goddesses - in pictures . The Guardian . 7 May 2011 . 26 October 2022.
  3. Web site: PARLIAMENT (REFORM) BILL. [H.L.] HL Deb vol 92 cc67-152]. . 8 May 1934.
  4. Web site: Brougham Hall Timeline. Brougham Hall.
  5. Drottningens England, Jan-Olof Olsson and Margareta Sjögren, Bonniers förlag 1953, pp. 38–39.
  6. Book: Debrett's Peerage . 1921.