Viscount Clifden

Viscount Clifden


A carte-de-visite portrait of the Irish courtier and racehorse owner Henry Agar-Ellis (1825-1866), styled Lord Dover from 1833 and 3rd Viscount Clifden from 1836.

Clifden was the eldest son of George Agar-Ellis, 1st Baron Dover, and his wife Lady Georgiana, daughter of George Howard, 6th Earl of Carlisle. He succeeded as Baron Dover on the death of his father in 1833 and in the viscountcy of Clifden on the death of his grandfather in 1836. He was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, and served as a Gentleman of the Bedchamber to the Prince Consort from 1846 to 1852. He owned the successful racehorses, Crucifix and her son, Surplice.

Lord Clifden married Eliza Horatia Frederica, daughter of Frederick Charles William Seymour, in 1861. He died at his London residence, Dover House, Whitehall, on 20 February 1866, aged 40, and was succeeded in his titles by his only son Henry, aged 3. According to a short obituary in the Dublin Evening Mail (22 February 1866): 'For more than two years past his lordship had been suffering from a malady from which there was no hope of relief. Latterly he was completely paralysed.'

Lady Clifden was later a Lady of the Bedchamber from 1867 to 1872 and was appointed a Lady of the Royal Order of Victoria and Albert (3rd Class). In 1870 she married Sir Walter George Stirling of Faskine, 3rd Baronet. She died in April 1896, aged 62.

Photographed by Camille Silvy of London on 13 October 1860.

 


Code: 124734
© Paul Frecker 2024