English barrister
Raymond Herbert Asquith
(6 November 1878 ? 15 September 1916) was an English
barrister
and eldest son of British prime minister
H. H. Asquith
. A distinguished
Oxford
scholar, he was a member of the fashionable group of intellectuals known as
the Coterie
, which included,
Lady Diana Manners
(with whom he had a long flirtatious relationship),
Patrick Shaw-Stewart
, Charles Lister, Hugo "Ego" Charteris,
Julian Grenfell
and
Edward Horner
. The Coterie were notable for their unconventional lifestyles and lavish hospitality. Like several of them, Asquith was killed in action in the
First World War
during his father's term in office.
[2]
Career and honours
[
edit
]
Asquith was the eldest son of British prime minister H. H. Asquith (1852-1928) by his first wife, Helen Kelsall Melland (1854-1891).
He was educated at
Winchester
, from where he won a scholarship to
Balliol
in 1896, taking with him a reputation for brilliance. He won the Ireland, Derby, and Craven scholarships, and graduated with first-class honours. Elected a
fellow
of
All Souls
in 1902, he received the
Eldon Law Scholarship
,
[3]
and was
called to the bar
in 1904.
[4]
The tall, handsome Asquith was a member of
the Coterie
, a group of
Edwardian
socialites and intellectuals.
Asquith was junior
counsel
in the North Atlantic Fisheries Arbitration and the
British Wreck Commissioner's inquiry into the sinking of the RMS Titanic
, and was considered a putative
Liberal
candidate for
Derby
. However, his rise was interrupted by the outbreak of the
First World War
. He was initially commissioned, on 17 December 1914, as a
second lieutenant
into the 16th (County of London) Battalion, London Regiment (
Queen's Westminster Rifles
).
[5]
He was transferred to the 3rd Battalion,
Grenadier Guards
on 14 August 1915,
[6]
and assigned as a
staff officer
, but he requested to be returned to active duty with his
battalion
, a request granted before the
Battle of the Somme
.
While leading the first half of 4
Company
in an attack near
Ginchy
on 15 September 1916, at the
Battle of Flers-Courcelette
, he was shot in the chest but famously lit a cigarette to hide the seriousness of his injuries so that his men would continue the attack.
[7]
He died whilst being carried back to British lines. His body was buried at
Guillemont
in the CWGC Guillemont Road Cemetery (Plot I. Row B. Grave 3.). The grave's headstone is inscribed: 'Small time but in that small most greatly lived this star of England',
[8]
a concluding line from Shakespeare's
Henry V
.
In his 1928 obituary tribute to H.H. Asquith,
Winston Churchill
summarised Asquith's last moments:
"It seemed quite easy for Raymond Asquith, when the time came, to face death and to die. When I saw him at the Front he seemed to move through the cold, squalor and peril of the winter trenches as if he were above and immune from the common ills of the flesh, a being clad in polished armour, entirely undisturbed, presumably invulnerable. The War which found the measure of so many, never got to the bottom of him, and when the Grenadiers strode into the crash and thunder of the Somme, he went to his fate cool, poised, resolute, matter of fact, debonair. And well we know that his father, then bearing the supreme burden of the State, would proudly have marched at his side"
[9]
The writer
John Buchan
devoted several pages of his autobiography
Memory Hold-the-Door
to his friendship with Asquith. He noted of Raymond's character:
"I do not think he could ever have been called popular. He was immensely admired, but he did not lay himself out to acquire popularity, and in the ordinary man he inspired awe rather than liking. His courtesy was without warmth, he was apt to be intolerant of mediocrity, and he had no desire for facile acquaintanceships. Also ? let it be admitted ? there were times when he was almost inhuman. He would destroy some piece of honest sentiment with a jest, and he had no respect for the sacred places of dull men. There was always a touch of scorn in him for obvious emotions, obvious creeds, and all the accumulated lumber of prosaic humanity. That was a defect of his great qualities. He kept himself for his friends and refused to bother about the world. But as such who were to his friendship he would deny nothing. I have never known a friend more considerate, and tender, and painstaking, and unfalteringly loyal. It was the relation of all others in life for which he had been born with a peculiar genius."
[10]
Buchan's analysis of Asquith's personality is endorsed by several other contemporaries who found him clever but rather arrogant, cold, cynical and aloof.
Memorials
[
edit
]
A memorial tablet to Asquith's memory was erected in
Amiens Cathedral
. The inscription, in French and Latin, states:
Priez pour l'ame de RAYMOND ASQUITH Lieutenant aux Grenadiers de la Garde Royale. Fils aine de Herbert Henry Asquith premier ministre du Royaume Uni. Ne le 6 Nov. 1878. Tombe au champ d'honneur pres de Guinchy le 15 Sept. 1916. [
Pray for the soul of RAYMOND ASQUITH Lieutenant of the Grenadiers of the Royal Guard. Eldest son of Herbert Henry Asquith, prime minister of the United Kingdom. Born Nov. 6 1878. Fell on the field of honour near Guinchy Sept. 15 1916.
]
O ORIENS
SPLENDOR LUCIS AETERNAE VENI ET ILLUMINA SEDENTES IN TENEBRIS ET UMBRA MORTIS. Gloriae memor posuit conjux. [
O dawn of the east, brightness of light eternal, and sun of justice: come, and enlighten those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.
]
He is also the subject of a memorial in
St Andrew's Church
near the family home in
Mells
in
Somerset
, and is listed on
Mells War Memorial
; both memorials were designed by
Sir Edwin Lutyens
, a friend of the Asquith family.
[11]
The St Andrew's Church memorial wording is:
In piam memoriam Raymondi Asquith Coll. Wintoniensis et Balliolensis scholaris Coll. Omnium Animarum socii qui in foro et republica ad omnia ingenii virtutisque praemia spe et votis aequalium destinatus medio in flore aetatis armis pro patria sumptis fortiter pugnans occidit defunctum terra tenet longinqua et amica desiderio inexpleto prosequuntur sui
N. VI NOV. MDCCCLXXVIII OB. XV SEPT. MCMXVI
[12]
In English the text reads:
In loving memory of Raymond Asquith Scholar of Winchester College and Balliol College Fellow of All Souls College Who was destined by the hopes and desires of his contemporaries To win all the rewards of intellectual talent and virtue. In the middle of the flower of his life He took up arms for his native-land and died fighting bravely. A distant and friendly land holds him now he is dead. His family and friends mourn him with unrequited longing. Born on 6 November 1878, died on 15 September 1916.
[13]
Asquith and his wife Katharine are portrayed in
Phoebe Traquair
's apse mural in All Saints Church, at
Thorney Hill
, he also appears in
William Rothenstein
's unfinished mural "War Cartoon" located at the
University of Southampton
.
Family
[
edit
]
Raymond Asquith was married on 25 July 1907 to
Katharine Frances Horner
(1885?1976),
[14]
[15]
younger daughter
[16]
of
Sir John Francis Fortescue Horner
, of
Mells, Somerset
, descended from Thomas Horner, the Tudor figure on whom the nursery rhyme '
Little Jack Horner
' is sometimes said to be based.
[17]
Her mother,
Lady Horner
(d. 1940), was Frances Jane Graham, elder daughter of
William Graham
, a rich merchant, passionate art collector, and
Liberal
member of parliament for Glasgow.
[18]
Lady Horner was a notable hostess and patron of the arts, especially the
Pre-Raphaelites
and
John Singer Sargent
. The Horners had four children ? Cicely (born 1883), Katharine (1885), Mark (who died in his teens), and Edward (1888).
Asquith and his wife had three children:
- Lady Helen Frances Asquith OBE (1908?2000), a school teacher and inspector who died unmarried
- Perdita Rose Mary Jolliffe, Baroness Hylton (nee Asquith) (1910?1996) who married the
4th Baron Hylton
(d 1967)
- Julian Edward George Asquith, 2nd Earl of Oxford and Asquith
,
KCMG
(1916?2011), nicknamed Trim, who was born a few months before his father's death on active service. The new baby was reputedly named "Trim" in honour of the Roman gourmand
Trimalchio
, after his father saw his newborn son for the first time while on leave from the war.
[19]
Asquith died nearly ten years before his father was raised to the House of Lords in 1925 as
Earl of Oxford and Asquith
. Katharine eventually inherited
Mells Manor
because her younger and only surviving brother, Edward Horner (1888?1917), was also killed in the war.
[20]
He was buried in France, but his memorial in
St Andrew's Church
, Mells was designed by his mother's friend
Edwin Lutyens
, who was a patron of
Monsignor Ronald Knox
. Katharine converted to Roman Catholicism after being widowed and became a friend of
Siegfried Sassoon
, who also converted, following her example.
[21]
She also remained in touch with
Evelyn Waugh
, another convert.
[22]
All three of her children were brought up as Roman Catholics.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
1881 England Census
- ^
"Mr. Asquith's Bereavement ? Message of Sympathy from the King".
The Times
. 20 September 1916. p. 11.
- ^
"University intelligence".
The Times
. No. 36949. London. 12 December 1902. p. 8.
- ^
Asquith and the Conspiracy to Sink Titanic: ET Research (2004) by Senan Molony ? 9 July 2004
. Encyclopedia-titanica.org. Retrieved on 2012-06-24.
- ^
"No. 29027"
.
The London Gazette
. 1 January 1915. p. 132.
- ^
"No. 29262"
.
The London Gazette
. 13 August 1915. p. 8024.
- ^
Farrah-Hockley, Anthony
(1966).
The Somme
. p. 238.
- ^
"Casualty Details: Asquith, Raymond"
.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
. Retrieved
1 May
2020
.
- ^
Clifford, Colin (2003). "The Asquiths." London: John Murray Page 366
- ^
Buchan, John (1940). "Pilgrim's Way." Cambridge: Houghton Mifflin Pages 52-53
- ^
Historic England
.
"Mells War Memorial (1058315)"
.
National Heritage List for England
. Retrieved
7 February
2016
.
- ^
Pym, Dora; Silver, Nancy, eds. (1952). "Raymond Asquith's Epitaph".
Alive on men's lips: an anthology of Rome and the Latin language in the life of twenty centuries
. p. 142.
- ^
Inglis, Susan (18 September 2008).
"A Visit to… Mells"
. Retrieved
18 January
2018
.
- ^
Lundy, Darryl.
"Katharine Frances Horner"
. The Peerage
. Retrieved
29 January
2018
.
[
unreliable source
]
- ^
The Papers of Alfred Duff Cooper (1st Viscount Norwich)
. janus.lib.cam.ac.uk
- ^
See
Oxford DNB: Frances Horner
and Encyclopedia Titanica. Her elder sister Cicely Horner (1883?1972), wife since 1908 of the Hon. George Lambton (1860?1945), fifth son of the
2nd Earl of Durham
was painted by
John Singer Sargent
.
- ^
"A Journey to Mells"
. 14 February 2006. Archived from the original on 5 December 2008
. Retrieved
24 June
2012
.
{{
cite web
}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (
link
)
. andrewcusack.com (14 February 2006).
- ^
theglasgowstory.com
- ^
Clarissa Eden
(2007)
A Memoir: From Churchill to Eden
- ^
"Apollo Magazine, 7 August 2007"
. Archived from
the original
on 8 February 2012
. Retrieved
5 February
2008
.
- ^
"Mells Report"
Archived
28 July 2011 at the
Wayback Machine
. Warpoets.org. Retrieved on 2012-06-24.
- ^
"Without Waugh, there would be no adventure ? Telegraph"
[
dead link
]
. Telegraph.co.uk (27 May 2003). Retrieved on 2012-06-24.
Sources
[
edit
]
- Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. K. D. Reynolds, 'Horner, Frances Jane, Lady Horner (1854/5?1940)’, first published September 2004, 580 words, with portrait illustration.
Oxford DNB: Frances Horner (citation only)
,
full article
available via subscription only.
- Jolliffe, John (ed.)
Raymond Asquith: Life and Letters
(Collins, 1980)
External links
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