Lord Adolphus Vane-Tempest

A carte-de-visite portrait of Lord Adolphus Vane-Tempest (1825-1864).

Born on 2 July 1825, he was the fourth child and second son of Charles Vane, the 3rd Marquess of Londonderry. From 1854 to his death in 1864, he was the Member of Parliament for North Durham. During the French invasion scare of 1859-60 he raised and commanded the Sunderland Rifles.

On 23 April 1860 he married Lady Susan Pelham-Clinton, the only daughter of the 5th Duke of Newcastle. However, his mental health declined soon after his marriage. A notoriously unstable alcoholic, Queen Victoria described him as having ‘a natural tendency to madness' and he attacked his wife on at least one occasion. A son, Francis, was born in 1863 but Lord Adolphus died the following year, aged 38, when he burst a blood vessel while being physically restrained by four of his keepers.

That same year his widow began a protracted affair with the Prince of Wales, allegedly giving birth to his illegitimate child in Ramsgate towards the end of 1871. Nothing is known of the child’s subsequent fate. Lady Susan died, aged only 36, possibly of rheumatic fever, at Trouville on 6 September 1875.

Photographed by the great French photographer Disdéri.