Arthur Granville Soames

Captain Arthur Granville Soames OBE (12 October 1886 – 6 July 1962) was a British Army officer in the Coldstream Guards and landowner.

Early life

He was born on 12 October 1886 in Wingerworth, Derbyshire, England.[1] He was the only son of Harold Soames (1855-1918), brewer, later of Gray Rigg, Lilliput, Dorset.

Soames's mother was Katherine Mary (1851-1932), a daughter of George Hill.[2]

Soames was the brother of Olave St. Clair Baden-Powell (1889–1977), World Chief Guide.

On Christmas night 1918, his father, Harold Soames, killed himself by walking into the sea at Lilliput, Poole. His sister Auriol Edith Davidson also died by suicide, throwing herself under a train at Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, on 5 April 1919; she was survived by her three small daughters, aged five, three, and three months.[citation needed]

Career

Soames was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Coldstream Guards on 16 August 1905, promoted to lieutenant on 21 September 1907,[3] and served with the regiment during the First World War.[4]

In November 1926, Soames was nominated as Sheriff of Buckinghamshire, and was then living at Ashwell Manor, Tylers Green, Buckinghamshire.[5] He was nominated again the following year.[6]

Personal life

On 20 December 1913 at the Guards' Chapel, Wellington Barracks, Soames married Hope Mary Woodbine Parish (b. 2 Aug 1893 in Westminster), daughter of businessman Charles Woodbine Parish, of Ennismore Gardens, Kensington. Together, they had two daughters and a son:

  • Sanchia Mary (Bunty) Soames (21 Sept 1914 - 1 Jan 1953)
  • Diana Katherine (Dido) Soames (24 Sept 1917 - 4 Feb 1997),[7] m. 1939 Lt.Col. Hugh William Cairns, M.C.
  • (Arthur) Christopher (John) Soames (12 Oct 1920 - Sept 1987) who married Mary, daughter of Winston Churchill

They divorced in 1934. Arthur Soames remarried twice:

  • On 23 Oct 1934 in London to Annette Constance Jardine[8] née Fraser (b. Sep 1876, East Grinstead, Sussex)
  • On 16 Mar 1948 in Westminster to Audrey Alma nee Humphreys (16 July 1900 - 1990).[9] In Q1 1923 in Reading she had married Vernon H Rivers,[9] but they divorced, and he married again, in 1934[9] and in 1943.[9] In Q2 1937 in Westminster she had married Ronald F A Sloane-Stanley,[9] who died on the Isle of Wight in Q3 1948, aged 80.[9]

In 1934, Soames inherited the mansion and estate of Sheffield Park, Sussex, from his father's brother, Arthur Gilstrap Soames, who had purchased it in 1909.[10] Soames sold the estate in 1953.[11] He also disposed of part of his library.[12]

He died in a London hospital on 6 July 1962 aged 75.[13]

References

  1. ^ "The Derbyshire childhood of Olave Lady Baden-Powell" by Jill Armstrong
  2. ^ Burke's Landed Gentry 14th ed., ed. Alfred T. Butler, p. 1632
  3. ^ Crisp, Frederick Arthur, ed. (1914). Visitation of England and Wales. p. 93. Retrieved 6 February 2018.
  4. ^ "Ministry of Defence".
  5. ^ "No. 33222". The London Gazette. 19 November 1926. p. 7471.
  6. ^ "No. 33330". The London Gazette. 18 November 1927. p. 7331.
  7. ^ Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage 2003, vol. 1, p. 640
  8. ^ Marriage notice in The Times, 25 October 1934, p. 1, reads: SOAMES : JARDINE.---On Oct. 23, 1934, by the Rev. Dr. Geikie-Cobb, D.D., CAPTAIN A. GRANVILLE SOAMES to ANNETTE CONSTANCE, widow of ROBERT JARDINE.
  9. ^ a b c d e f https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/search.pl
  10. ^ Shirley Nicholson, Nymans: The Story of a Sussex Garden, 1992, pp. 53, 122
  11. ^ "Additional Manuscripts, Catalogue EE".
  12. ^ Lot 107: Churchill, Sir Winston. The Second World War, Cassell & Co., Ltd, 1948-1954 8vo, First English Edition, 6 volumes, Family Presentation Copy, Volume 1 Inscribed By Churchill In Year Of Publication, Volume 2 Inscribed "To Arthur from Winston 1949” invaluable.com, accessed 23 September 2022
  13. ^ Death notice in The Times, Saturday, 7 Jul 1962, p.10