George Brudenell-Bruce, 6th Marquess of Ailesbury


George William James Chandos Brudenell-Bruce, 6th Marquess of Ailesbury, , styled Earl of Cardigan between 1894 and 1911, was a British soldier. According to his hand-written memoirs, available at the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre, he went by the name Chandos.

Background and education

Brudenell-Bruce was the son of Henry Brudenell-Bruce, 5th Marquess of Ailesbury and Georgiana Sophia Maria Pinckney. He was educated at Westminster School. He succeeded his father in the marquessate on the latter's death on 10 March 1911.

Career

Lord Ailesbury served in the 3rd Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders; the Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry; the Middlesex Yeomanry; and the Wiltshire Regiment.
Lord Cardigan was promoted to the rank of captain on 3 September 1898, supernumerary to the establishment. He fought with the Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry in the Second Boer War, for which he was mentioned in Dispatches, and was appointed a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order in November 1900. He was conformed as a captain on the establishment in May 1902. From he 1914 fought in the Great War, during which he was again mentioned in despatches and decorated with the Territorial Decoration.
He was invested as a Knight of Grace of the Order of St John of Jerusalem. He was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Wiltshire on 19 July 1920, and was a Justice of the Peace.
He was involved in conservative and right-wing politics and during the 1920s was a member of the reactionary British Fascists.
According to his son Cedric, George "Chandos" was involved in the process of converting the family estate and its surrounding forest into a munitions depot and military base during WWII, an ideal location, as the trees provided cover from Nazi spy planes.

Family

Married three times, Lord Ailesbury married his first wife, Caroline Sydney Anne Madden, daughter of John Madden and Caroline Clements, on 21 March 1903. They had three children, Cedric Brudenell-Bruce, 7th Marquess of Ailesbury ; Lady Ursula Daphne Brudenell-Bruce, who married Alfred Thomas Taylor in 1944; and Lady Rosemary Enid Brudenell-Bruce. Caroline died on 5 May 1941.
Lord Ailesbury then married Mabel Irene Lindsay, daughter of John Samuel Lindsay, on 21 February 1945. She died on 26 June 1954. Finally, he married as his third wife Alice Maude Emily Pinhey, daughter of Captain John Forbes Pinhey, on 9 July 1955. She died on 9 February 1960.