English aristocrat; 9th Governor-General of New Zealand (1957-62)
Charles John Lyttelton, 10th Viscount Cobham
,
KG
,
GCMG
,
GCVO
,
TD
,
PC
,
DL
(8 August 1909 ? 20 March 1977) was the
ninth
Governor-General of New Zealand
and an English
cricketer
from the
Lyttelton family
.
Background and education
[
edit
]
Lyttelton was born in
Kensington
,
London
, the son of
John Lyttelton, 9th Viscount Cobham
, and Violet Yolande Leonard.
[1]
He was a cousin of the musician
Humphrey Lyttelton
. He was educated at
Eton College
and
Trinity College, Cambridge
, graduating with a law degree in 1932.
[2]
He had a family connection with New Zealand, where he became governor-general, through his great-grandfather
George Lyttelton, 4th Baron Lyttelton
, who was chairman of the
Canterbury Association
and contributed financially to the early development of
Christchurch
.
Hagley Park
is named after their family estate (
Hagley Park, Worcestershire
), and the port town of
Lyttelton
bears his great-grandfather's name. He visited New Zealand in 1950 in relation to property holdings in Christchurch.
[1]
Military service
[
edit
]
Lyttelton joined the
Territorial Army
in 1933. He served in the
Second World War
with the
British Expeditionary Force
in France from 1940. He was commander of the 5th Regiment from 1943.
[1]
Lyttelton was made
Honorary Colonel
of
Queen's Own Warwickshire and Worcestershire Yeomanry
on 1 April 1969.
[3]
Political career
[
edit
]
Viscount Cobham (right) on 26 August 1958 with
Neil Durden-Smith
in the
National Art Gallery
After the war, Lyttelton wanted to follow in his father's footsteps and enter the
House of Commons
. However, his father died in 1949 and he succeeded as Viscount Cobham, precluding a career in the Commons.
[1]
Cobham became the
ninth
Governor-General of New Zealand
on 5 September 1957. Although from an aristocratic background, he proved popular. He was seen as an outdoors man with a sporting prowess in cricket, and golf, and a competent rugby judge. He was good with a gun and an enthusiastic fly fisherman, all attributes that resonated well with New Zealanders.
[1]
Significant events during his tenure included the independence of Western
Samoa
and the opening of the
Auckland Harbour Bridge
.
[4]
[5]
Cobham was served by three
Prime Ministers
:
Sidney Holland
(1949?1957),
Keith Holyoake
(1957 and 1960?1972) and
Walter Nash
(1957?1960). He was most careful to not comment on controversial matters, and had a good working relationship with all three. He was instrumental in setting up the
Outward Bound
outdoor education organisation in New Zealand, opening the
Outward Bound school
in
Anakiwa
near
Picton
in September 1962, which bears his name. He visited the school in 1966 and was pleased with the progress that had been made.
Cobham served until 13 September 1962. He was a skilled orator and a book of his speeches sold 50,000 copies; he donated the £10,000 profit to Outward Bound.
Cobham Oval
in Whangarei and Cobham Court in Porirua are named after him.
[1]
Cricket
[
edit
]
|
Batting
| Right-handed
|
---|
Bowling
| Right-arm medium
|
---|
Role
| Bowler
|
---|
|
Years
| Team
|
1932?1939
| Worcestershire
|
---|
1935?1936
| MCC
|
---|
|
---|
FC
debut
| 25 June 1932 Worcestershire v
Gloucestershire
|
---|
Last
FC
| 24 February 1961 New Zealand Governor's XI v MCC
|
---|
|
|
|
---|
|
St John the Baptist Church, Hagley
, grave of Charles Lyttelton, 10th Viscount Cobham.
Lyttelton enjoyed a career in
first-class cricket
, playing more than 90 times for
Worcestershire
in the 1930s and captaining the club between 1936 and 1939.
He made his first-class debut, against
Gloucestershire
, in June 1932, but made a
duck
in his only innings and did not reappear for two years. He played five times in 1934, but it was only the following season that he became established in the side, playing about 20 matches a year from then until the Second World War, with the exception of 1937 when he appeared only twice.
His highest score (and only first-class century) was the 162 he made against
Leicestershire
in 1938, but he made many other useful contributions, reaching 50 on 14 further occasions. His most productive year was 1938, when he scored 741 runs at an
average
of 21.17.
With the ball, his first victim (in July 1934) was
Charlie Barnett
, while in 1935 he produced his best innings' bowling, claiming 4?83 against the
South Africans
. After 1935 his bowling became largely occasional, and with the exception of nine wickets in 1938, he never again took more than three in a season.
He played ten games for
Marylebone Cricket Club
(MCC) pre-war: one against
Oxford University
in 1935, and nine on
MCC's tour of Australia
and
New Zealand
during the following winter.
His cricketing career proper ended with the outbreak of war, but (now listed on the scorecard as Lord Cobham, having succeeded to the title in 1949) he played for an "MCC New Zealand Touring Team" against a strong "London New Zealand Club" side in 1954, taking two wickets including that of
Bill Merritt
. Remarkably, he made a one-off return to first-class action aged 51 in February 1961, more than two decades after his previous appearance at that level, when as Governor-General he captained a New Zealand side against MCC at
Auckland
: he showed he still had ability, with a handy first-innings 44 from number ten in the order.
A number of his relatives played first-class cricket. His great-grandfather
George
played for
Cambridge University
in the 1830s, his grandfather (also
Charles
) turned out for teams including Cambridge and MCC in the 1860s, his father
John
made a handful of appearances for Worcestershire in the 1920s, and his uncle ? another
Charles
? played for Worcestershire, Cambridge and MCC before the First World War.
Lyttelton was a former President of the MCC when he became embroiled in what became known as the
D’Oliveira affair
. Bruce Murray writes that "On 12 March 1968
Vorster
saw Lord Cobham, a former MCC President, in
Cape Town
, and told him 'quite categorically' that
D’Oliveira
would not be acceptable. As Cobham later recalled in a letter to
Sir de Villiers Graaff
, the leader of the
United Party
, 'As I remember, he said that a Cape Coloured, alone of all races, castes and creeds, would be likely to provide a catalyst to the potentially explosive ? or possibly one should say tricky ? Cape Coloured situation'. In April Lord Cobham duly conveyed this information to
Billy Griffith
when he saw him at Lord’s".
[6]
Family
[
edit
]
Interior of St John the Baptist,
Hagley
, with the
Garter banners
of the 10th Viscount Cobham and the
1st Viscount Chandos
Lord Cobham married Elizabeth Alison Makeig-Jones on 30 April 1942 in
Chelsea, London
. They had four sons and four daughters. He died in
Marylebone
, London, on 20 March 1977, and was survived by his wife and children.
[1]
He was cremated in London; his ashes were returned to
Hagley
for burial in the Lyttelton plot at
Hagley parish church
.
Children of Charles Lyttelton, 10th Viscount Cobham:
- John William Leonard Lyttelton, 11th Viscount Cobham
(1943?2006); childless
- Hon. Juliet Meriel Lyttelton (b. 1944); married, 4 children
- Hon. Elizabeth Catherine Lyttelton (b. 1946); married George Cecil Brooke Weld-Forester, 8th
Baron Forester
, 4 children including the 9th Baron Forester
- Christopher Charles Lyttelton, 12th Viscount Cobham
(b. 1947), married, 2 children. His heir apparent is his son Oliver.
- Hon. Richard Cavendish Lyttelton (b. 1949); married, 2 children. He is a Trustee of the EMI Music Sound Foundation and worked in the recording industry with
EMI Music
for many years.
[7]
- Hon. Nicholas Makeig Lyttelton (1951?2014); married, 1 son (died 2006)
- Hon. Lucy Lyttelton (b. 1954); married, 3 sons
- Hon. Sarah Lyttelton (1954?2015); married Nicholas Bedford, 2 daughters
[8]
His
Garter banner
, which hung in St. George's Chapel in Windsor during his lifetime, is now on display in the church of St John the Baptist, Hagley.
[9]
Arms
[
edit
]
Coat of arms of Charles John Lyttelton, 10th Viscount Cobham
|
- Notes
- The arms of Charles Lyttelton, Viscount Cobham consist of:
[10]
[11]
(
Carved depiction
)
- Crest
- A
Moor’s Head
in profile, couped at the shoulders proper, wreathed about the temples Argent and Sable.
- Escutcheon
- Argent, a Chevron between three Escallops Sable (
Lyttelton
).
- Supporters
- On either side a
Merman
proper, holding in the exterior hand a
Trident
Or.
- Motto
- Ung Dieu, ung roy
(One God, one King)
|
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
McGibbon, Ian (1 September 2010).
"Cobham, Charles John Lyttelton ? Biography"
.
Dictionary of New Zealand Biography
. Retrieved
11 January
2011
.
- ^
"Viscount Cobham, GCMG, TD"
. The Governor-General. 28 October 2010
. Retrieved
11 January
2011
.
- ^
"No. 45013"
.
The London Gazette
(Supplement). 5 January 1970. p. 217.
- ^
AHB Opening Video:
"Auckland Harbour Bridge Official Opening 1959 Video"
. Archived from
the original
on 15 October 2008
. Retrieved
23 June
2008
.
- ^
Auckland Harbour Bridge Authority Record of 20 Years Activities 1951?1971
- ^
Cricket and society in South Africa, 1910-1971: from union to isolation
. Murray, Bruce K.,, Parry, Richard, 1956-, Winch, Jonty. Cham, Switzerland. September 2018.
ISBN
978-3-319-93608-6
.
OCLC
1050448400
.
{{
cite book
}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link
) CS1 maint: others (
link
)
- ^
"Trustees & Patrons: The Hon. Richard C Lyttelton"
. EMI Music Sound Foundation. 2 September 2019.
- ^
"Hon Sarah Bedford (nee Lyttelton) 1954?2015"
. Peerage News. 14 April 2015.
- ^
"Archived copy"
(PDF)
. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 18 November 2015
. Retrieved
17 November
2015
.
{{
cite web
}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (
link
)
- ^
Burke, Bernard (1864).
The General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales: Comprising a Registry of Armorial Bearings from the Earliest to the Present Time
. Harrison & sons. p. 634
. Retrieved
18 May
2022
.
- ^
Debrett's Peerage, and Titles of Courtesy
. London, Dean. 1921. p. 222, COBHAM, VISCOUNT. (Lyttelton.)
. Retrieved
20 May
2022
.
External links
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]
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