Archibald Acheson, 5th Earl of Gosford


Archibald Charles Montagu Brabazon Acheson, 5th Earl of Gosford MC KGStJ, styled Viscount Acheson until 1922, was a British peer.

Early life

Acheson was born in London on 26 May 1877. He was the eldest son of Archibald Acheson, 4th Earl of Gosford and Lady Louisa Montagu, a Lady-in-Waiting to Queen Alexandra.
His paternal grandparents were Archibald Acheson, 3rd Earl of Gosford and the former Lady Theodosia Brabazon. His maternal grandparents were William Montagu, 7th Duke of Manchester and the former Countess Louisa von Alten. After his grandfather's death in 1890, his grandmother remarried to Spencer Cavendish, 8th Duke of Devonshire.

Career

Lord Acheson was commissioned in the Coldstream Guards, and promoted to lieutenant on 19 December 1901, but resigned in late October 1902. after serving in the Boer War from 1899 to 1901. He served as Military Governor of Kimberley, South Africa from 1900 to 1901 and in the First world war as a Lt. Col. in the Coldstream Guards. He was awarded the Order of Saint John and a Military Cross in the King's 1915 Birthday Honours. In 1918, he served as Assistant Adjutant-General of the War Office.
Upon the death of his father in 1922, Lord Gosford succeeded to the earldom.
In America, where Lord Gosford lived for twenty-five years, he set up a wine shop at 40 East 50 Street in Manhattan. During World War II, he joined the New York City Patrol, which assisted the New York City Police on night duty.

Personal life

On 21 June 1910, then Viscount Acheson was married to Mildred Caroline Carter at St George's Hanover Square Church. Mildred, as she was known, was the only daughter of American diplomat John Ridgeley Carter and Alice Carter. Together, they were the parents of the following children:
In 1927, Lord Acheson left his first wife and went to New York City. They divorced in 1918 and while in New York, Lord Gosford married Beatrice Breese on 1 October 1928. Beatrice, the former wife of Robert Potter Breese of New York, was a daughter of Arthur B. Claflin of 1050 Fifth Avenue in New York City and Southampton, New York, and a granddaughter of merchant Horace Brigham Claflin.
Lord Gosford died in the Flower and Fifth Avenue Hospital in New York City on 20 March 1954. He was buried at Maple Hill Cemetery in Shaftsbury, Vermont, near his summer home in South Shaftsbury. His first wife Mildred died at her home in Switzerland in September 1965, and his widow, the Dowager Countess of Gosford died on 26 January 1967.

Descendants

Through his daughter, Lady Mary, he was a grandfather of Jaime Corcuera Acheson, who married Archduchess Myriam of Austria, a daughter of Archduke Felix of Austria and granddaughter of King Charles I of Austria, in 1983.