Gerald Wellesley, 7th Duke of Wellington

Gerald Wellesley, 7th Duke of Wellington, KG (21 August 1885 – 4 January 1972), styled Lord Gerald Wellesley between 1900 and 1943, was a British diplomat and soldier.

He was the third son of Lord Arthur Wellesley (later 4th Duke of Wellington) and Lady Arthur Wellesley (later Duchess of Wellington, née Kathleen Bulkeley Williams). He married Dorothy Violet Ashton, daughter of Robert Ashton, on 30 April 1914.

He served as a diplomat in the Diplomatic Corps in 1908. He held the office of Third Secretary of the Diplomatic Service between 1910 and 1917, and the office of Second Secretary of the Diplomatic Service between 1917 and 1919.

He was invested as a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1921, and as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 1935, and was Surveyor of the King's Works of Art 1936–1943.

He gained the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in 1939 in the service of the Grenadier Guards. He fought in the Second World War between 1939 and 1945.

In 1943, he succeeded his brother Henry as Duke of Wellington, Earl of Mornington, and Prince of Waterloo. His brother's other title, Duque de Ciudad Rodrigo, was briefly held by Henry's daughter Anne, before passing to him in 1949.

He held the office of Lord Lieutenant of the County of London between 1944 and 1949, and the office of Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire between 1949 and 1960.

He was invested as a Knight of the Garter in 1951.

Books

He was the author of the following books :

# "The Iconography of the First Duke of Wellington" (1935)
# "The Diary of a Desert Journey" (1938)
# "The Journal of Mrs. Arbuthnot" (1950)
# "A Selection from the Private Correspondence of the First Duke of Wellington" (1952)

Children

He married Dorothy Violet Ashton (21 August 1885 – 11 July 1956 on 30 April 1914. She was the daughter of the late Robert Ashton of Croughton, Cheshire (himself a second cousin of the 1st Baron Ashton of Hyde) descended from wealthy cotton manufacturers, and his wife (Lucy) Cecilia Dunn-Gardner, later Countess of Scarbrough. Her stepfather since 1899 was the 10th Earl of Scarbrough. The Wellesleys had two children :

# Arthur Valerian Wellesley, Marquess Douro (later 8th Duke of Wellington), born 2 July 1915
# Lady Elizabeth Wellesley, born 26 December 1918

According to most critical accounts, the marriage failed quickly. Dorothy Wellesley, a significant poet in her own right, was either bisexual or lesbian; one of her lovers was Vita Sackville-West (who wrote [http://www.oxforddnb.com/index/101036826/ her entry] for the "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography"). [ [http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/918.html One scholar Frank O'Shea] claims that Lord Gerald Wellesley himself was homosexual, while his wife was bisexual; however, they managed to produce two children together.]

References

External links

* [http://www.dwr.org.uk/ Duke of Wellington's Regiment - West Riding]