Peregrine Cust, 6th Baron Brownlow

Belton House, the ancestral home of the Cust family

Peregrine Francis Adelbert Cust, 6th Baron Brownlow (27 April 1899 – 28 July 1978), was a British peer and courtier. He was the son of Adelbert Salusbury Cockayne Cust, 5th Baron Brownlow, and his wife Maud Buckle.

Education and World War I service

He was educated at Eton, and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, later being commissioned into the Grenadier Guards.

He fought in the First World War and left the Army with the rank of Lieutenant.

Inter-war years

He was Mayor of Grantham from 1934-35. Brownlow also served as Lord Lieutenant of Lincolnshire from 1936 to 1950.

During the 1930s Brownlow was a close friend and equerry to the Prince of Wales, and later Lord-in-waiting when he became King Edward VIII. The Prince spent many weekends at Brownlow's country house, Belton House, but it is not known whether or not his future wife Mrs Wallis Simpson ever spent time at Belton. Upon the prince's accession to the throne, Lord Brownlow became heavily involved in the abdication crisis which followed the new King's intention to marry Mrs Simpson. Brownlow personally accompanied Mrs Simpson on her flight to France to escape the media attention, and encouraged Mrs Simpson to renounce the idea of marriage to the King.[1] Returning to England, Brownlow attempted to enlist the support of the King's mother Queen Mary, but she refused to receive him.[2]

Following the abdication, Lord Brownlow attempted to extricate himself from the former King's circle, refusing to attend the Duke of Windsor's marriage ceremony in 1937. For this Edward and his wife, now the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, regarded Brownlow as disloyal. The Duchess in particular never forgave the man who had once championed her.[3]

World War II service

In 1939 he was commissioned into the Royal Air Force Administrative and Special Duties Branch.

He was briefly involved in national politics when he served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of Aircraft Production Lord Beaverbrook from 1940 to 1941.

He was promoted to Flying Officer in 1941 and Flight Lieutenant in 1943 and resigned his commission in March 1944 as Acting Squadron Leader.

Post war

Lacking the Duchess of Windsor's forgiveness following the abdication was one thing; following the accession of the new monarch, King George VI, Brownlow read without prior warning in the Court Circular, that he had been replaced as the Sovereign's Lord-in-Waiting. Phoning Buckingham Palace for an explanation, he was given the curt information that his resignation had been accepted - but he had never tendered it. It was also made clear to him that the new King and his consort, Queen Elizabeth, had ordered that Brownlow's name was never to appear in the "Court Circular" again.[4]

The National Trust are now the owners of Belton House.

Personal life

Lord Brownlow married three times. He married firstly Katherine, daughter of Brigadier General Sir David Alexander Kinloch, 11th Baronet, in 1927. They had three children. After his first wife's death in 1952 he married secondly Dorothy, daughter of Thomas Sarsfield Kent Power, in 1954. She died in 1966 and Brownlow married thirdly Leila Joan, Lady Manton (d.1983), widow of George Miles Watson, 2nd Baron Manton (d.1968) and daughter of Major Philip Guy Reynolds DSO,[5] in 1969. He died in July 1978, aged 79, and was succeeded in his titles by his second but eldest surviving son Edward John Peregrine Cust.

Styles of address

  1. ↑ Although The Lord Brownlow was a baronet, by custom the post-nominal of "Bt" is omitted, as Peers of the Realm do not list subsidiary hereditary titles.
Honorary titles
Preceded by
The Earl of Yarborough		 Lord Lieutenant of Lincolnshire
1936–1950 		Succeeded by
Lord Willoughby de Eresby
Peerage of Great Britain
Preceded by
Adelbert Salisbury Cockayne Cust		 Baron Brownlow
1927–1978 		Succeeded by
Edward John Peregrine Cust

Notes

  1. ↑ Belton House, 63
  2. ↑ Thornton, 136
  3. ↑ Thornton, 349
  4. ↑ (Thornton, 137)
  5. ↑ Debrett's Peerage, 1968, p.739, Baron Manton

References

See also

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