7196

Study portrait

Arthur Herbert Tennyson Somers-Cocks, 6th Baron Somers 1929

Half-length to the left, his arms folded, wearing a slate grey jacket, pale blue shirt and red and navy striped tie, a blue handkerchief in his pocket

Oil on board, 90.2 x  69.9 cm (35 ½ x 27 ½ in.)

Inscribed lower right: de László / 1929

Laib L15586 (511) / C25 (6): Lord Somers

NPG Album 1927-29, p. 32

Sitters’ Book II, f. 63: Somers August 1st 1929

Eastnor Castle Collection, Herefordshire

This portrait was painted in de László’s studio at 3 Fitzjohn’s Avenue in August 1929, while the sitter was on leave from his position as Governor of Victoria in Australia. His wife was painted in hunting dress in 1925 [7187] and that portrait hangs with the present picture at Eastnor Castle. A rejected version [112650] for Lady Somers’ portrait remained in the artist’s studio and was subsequently destroyed in accordance with the terms of his will. She was painted again in 1926 [111420] for her sister Lady Bathurst, before her departure for Australia.

Arthur Herbert Tennyson Somers-Cocks was born on 20 March 1887 at The Briary in Freshwater, Isle of Wight, the son of Captain Herbert Haldane Somers-Cocks (1861-1894) and his wife Blanche Clogstoun (1862-1895). They were part of the Freshwater Circle that included the Poet Laureate Alfred Lord Tennyson, who was the sitter’s godfather and the artist George Frederick Watts, who adopted Blanche after the early death of her parents. The pioneering photographer Julia Margaret Cameron was a near neighbour in Freshwater Bay and adopted Blanche’s two sisters Mary and Adeline.

He succeeded to the title of 6th Baron Somers in 1899 after the death of a distant relative, his father having died when he was seven. Somers was educated at Mulgrave Castle, Charterhouse School and New College, Oxford. In 1906 he joined the First Life Guards, taking a leave of absence to farm in Canada before rejoining his regiment at the outbreak of the First World War. He was mentioned in despatches and awarded the Military Cross, D.S.O. and the Légion d’Honneur. Between 1924 and 1926, he was Lord-in-Waiting to King George V. In 1926 he was appointed Governor of Victoria and Acting Governor-General of Australia in 1930. Between 1933 and 1944 he was Lord Lieutenant of Herefordshire and President of the Marylebone Cricket Club from 1936-1937. The sitter was closely involved with the Boy Scout movement and served as Deputy Chief Scout for Great Britain under Lord Baden-Powell from 1936 to 1941, succeeding him in 1941 as Chief Scout of the United Kingdom and British Commonwealth, a post he kept until his death. He also enjoyed hunting and was Joint Master of the Ledbury Hunt from 1922 to 1924.

On 20 April 1921 he married Daisy Finola Meeking, younger daughter of Captain Bertram Meeking. They had one daughter, Elizabeth Violet Virginia (born 1922). In that year, Lord Somers offered the National Trust permanent rights over Eastnor Castle, which ensured that the contents of the castle were preserved.

Lord Somers died on 14 July 1944 at Eastnor Castle and was succeeded by his uncle Arthur Percy Somers-Cocks. His wife survived him for almost forty years, dying in 1981.

PROVENANCE:

By descent in the family

LITERATURE:

DLA101-0071, The Sunday Sentinel, 16 August 1929

KF 2022