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- Francis Douglas was the eldest son of the 9th Marquess of Queensberry. Until 1893, Douglas was known by the courtesy title of Viscount Drumlanrig. As a young man, he was a lieutenant in the Coldstream Guards.
In 1892, William Gladstone became Prime Minister for the fourth and last time. The Foreign Secretary in his administration was Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery. Rumours abound as to Rosebery's sexuality; although married with four children, it was often rumoured that he was bisexual. Whatever the truth of these rumours, there is no doubt that he made Francis Douglas his protégé. He was introduced to Rosebery around 1892 and, in spite of any obvious qualifications, Rosebery appointed him to be his private secretary. Seeking to advance his young friend, Rosebery obtained for him the position of a Lord-in-Waiting to Queen Victoria. To qualify for this role, Francis needed to be a peer in his own right and he was accordingly created Baron Kelhead in June 1893.
Francis' father, the hot-headed Marquess of Queensberry and later bane of Oscar Wilde, was furious when his son was given entry into the House of Lords. Because Queensberry held no English titles, he had to rely upon being elected as a representative peer of Scotland in order to sit in the Lords. Although he had been a representative peer between 1872 and 1880, his fellow peers declined to re-elect him in 1880, due to his publicly professed atheism. Between 1880 and 1893, Queensberry found himself embroiled in a number of scandals, further details of which can be found at the foot of the page containing details of his peerage. When he heard of Rosebery's plan to elevate his son to the House of Lords, his reaction was typically violent. He wrote angry letters to Gladstone and Rosebery. He even wrote to the Queen, complaining of Rosebery's 'bad influence' on his son, which was probably an oblique accusation of homosexuality.
Soon after Francis' promotion, the Marquess pursued Rosebery to Bad Homburg in Germany where Rosebery was holidaying with the Prince of Wales. Queensberry, armed with a dog whip, was found lurking near Rosebery's hotel and the next day the local police chief was able to report to Rosebery that Queensberry had 'found it advisable to depart this morning with the 7 o'clock train for Paris.' However, news of the attempted assault started tongues wagging about the nature of the relationship between Rosebery and Lord Kelhead.
During the summer of 1894, Francis became engaged to a young woman named Alix Ellis. In October of that year, he accepted an invitation for a weekend's shooting at Quantock Lodge,near Bridgwater, the home of Alix's uncle, Edward Stanley (MP for Somerset West 1882-1885and Bridgwater 1885-1906). On 19 October, while out with his fellow shooters, he went intothe next field. After a few minutes, his companions heard a shot and, hurrying into the field,found Francis dead from a gunshot wound. At the subsequent inquest, the coroner recorded a verdict of accidental death, although public opinion was widely in favour of suicide.
Having lost one son in circumstances surrounded by rumours of homosexuality, it is possible that Queensberry was determined not to lose another, which may explain his implacablepersecution of Oscar Wilde six months later.
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1867 - 1894 (27 years)