The Right Honourable
The Viscount Downe
KCVO, CB, CIE
Cigarette card of Viscount Downe produced during the Second Boer War
In office
26 January 1857 – 21 January 1924
Preceded by7th Viscount Downe
Succeeded by9th Viscount Downe
Personal details
Born
Hugh Richard Dawnay

(1844-07-20)20 July 1844
Died21 January 1924(1924-01-21) (aged 79)
Spouses
Lady Cecilia Maria Charlotte Molyneaux
​
​
(m. 1869; died 1910)​
    Florence Faith Dening
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1911)​
    Children5
    Parent(s)William Dawnay, 7th Viscount Downe
    Mary (née Bagot), Viscountess Downe
    EducationEton College
    Alma materChrist Church, Oxford
    Military service
    RankMajor-General
    Battles/warsAnglo-Zulu War
    Second Boer War

    Major-General Hugh Richard Dawnay, 8th Viscount Downe, KCVO, CB, CIE (20 July 1844 – 21 January 1924) was a British Army general and President of the Marylebone Cricket Club.

    Early life

    Dawnay was the second son of William Dawnay, 7th Viscount Downe and his wife Mary Isabel Bagot, daughter of Richard Bagot, Bishop of Bath and Wells. One younger brother, Lewis Payn Dawnay, was MP for Thirsk and another, Guy Cuthbert Dawnay, traveller and soldier, was MP for the North Riding of Yorkshire, 1882-85.

    In 1857, Dawnay succeeded his father, who died in his forties. He was educated at Eton College and attended Christ Church, Oxford.

    Career

    Lord Downe was an officer in the 2nd Regiment of Life Guards, where he was promoted to captain on 25 June 1873.[1] He fought in the Anglo-Zulu War in 1879, for which he was mentioned in despatches. He was Lieutenant-Colonel of the 10th Hussars between 1887 and 1892. From 1899 to March 1900 he served as a staff officer in the Second Boer War in South Africa, where he was deputed to accompany the military attachés representing foreign powers. He was mentioned in despatches twice, in a despatch dated 31 March 1900 the Commander-in-Chief Lord Roberts stated that he "discharged his duties with tact and discretion".[2] He was then appointed in command of a brigade of Imperial Yeomanry.[3]

    After his return to the United Kingdom, Lord Downe was in March 1901 asked by King Edward VII to take part in a special diplomatic mission to announce the King's accession to the governments of Belgium, Bavaria, Italy, Württemberg, and The Netherlands.[4]

    In July 1901 he was promoted to the temporary rank of Brigadier general on the Staff to command the Cavalry Brigade at the Curragh,[5] where training for fighting in South Africa took place. In December 1901 her received the local rank of major-general whilst so employed.[6] He retired from the army on 30 July 1902,[7] and was granted the honorary rank of major-general.[8]

    Lord Downe was the author of a 1902 report to inquire into the working of the British Army Remount Department in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. The report, which was especially critical of the supply of horses during the preceding war in South Africa, was published in a government blue-book with other such reports (Cd.995).[9]

    In early 1903 Lord Downe was appointed a Special Envoy deputized by the King to travel to Iran to present the Shah with the insignia of the Order of the Garter.[10]

    Honours

    Downe was created Baron Dawnay, of Danby in the North Riding of the County of York, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, on 24 July 1897 and subsequently sat in the House of Lords (his inherited viscountcy was Irish and did not give him this right). He was invested as a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire (CIE) in 1886, and Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in 1900 for services in South Africa. He was appointed a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO) in the November 1902 Birthday Honours list,[11][12] and promoted to a Knight Commander of the same order (KCVO) by King Edward VII on 18 December 1902.[13][14]

    Cricket

    A cricketer he played for I Zingari and the MCC, playing in the Aborigines v MCC test at Lord's in 1868 in the first tour of England by an Australian team.[15][16] He became President of the MCC in 1872[17]

    Personal life

    On 12 July 1869, Lord Downe was married to Lady Cecilia Maria Charlotte Molyneux (1838–1910), the only daughter of Charles Molyneux, 3rd Earl of Sefton and the former Mary Augusta Gregge-Hopwood (only daughter of Robert Gregge-Hopwood of Hopwood Hall). They had five children:[18]

    After Lady Downe's death, he remarried on 27 July 1911 to Florence Faith Dening, a daughter of Rev. Thomas Henry Dening, the Vicar of Holy Trinity Church, Kilburn. Lord Downe died on 21 January 1924. After his death, his widow remarried to Rev. Arthur Maxwell Bury, Vicar of Loose, Maidstone, on 15 April 1931.[18]

    References

    1. ↑ "No. 24001". The London Gazette. 25 July 1873. p. 3493.
    2. ↑ "No. 27282". The London Gazette. 8 February 1901. p. 844.
    3. ↑ "The War - The Imperial Yeomanry". The Times. No. 36095. London. 21 March 1900. p. 10.
    4. ↑ "The King – the special Embassies". The Times. No. 36410. London. 23 March 1901. p. 12.
    5. ↑ "No. 27340". The London Gazette. 2 August 1901. p. 5128.
    6. ↑ "No. 27395". The London Gazette. 7 January 1902. p. 151.
    7. ↑ "No. 27467". The London Gazette. 22 August 1902. p. 5467.
    8. ↑ "No. 27470". The London Gazette. 2 September 1902. p. 5685.
    9. ↑ "Reports on working of the Remount Department Abroad". The Times. No. 36903. London. 20 October 1902. p. 8.
    10. ↑ "Appointments". The Times. No. 36970. London. 6 January 1903. p. 8.
    11. ↑ "Birthday Honours". The Times. No. 36921. London. 10 November 1902. p. 10.
    12. ↑ "No. 27493". The London Gazette (Supplement). 7 November 1902. pp. 7161–7163.
    13. ↑ "Court Circular". The Times. No. 36955. London. 19 December 1902. p. 4.
    14. ↑ "No. 27510". The London Gazette. 30 December 1902. p. 8967.
    15. ↑ Cricinfo
    16. ↑ State Library of New South Wales
    17. ↑ Wisden 1874
    18. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Downe, Viscount (I, 1681)". www.cracroftspeerage.co.uk. Heraldic Media Limited. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
    19. ↑ CWGC entry
    20. ↑ "Greatest Individual Loss of the War". Dundee Evening Telegraph. 26 June 1922. Retrieved 6 January 2016.
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