Percy Douglas, 10th Marquess of Queensberry


Percy Sholto Douglas, 10th Marquess of Queensberry was a Scottish aristocrat.
Born in Cummertrees, Dumfries, Scotland, he was the second son of The 9th Marquess of Queensberry and brother of Lord Alfred Douglas, the lover of Oscar Wilde. From the death of his elder brother Francis in 1894 until his father's death in 1900 he was styled Viscount Drumlanrig.

Career

In his youth Douglas served in the Royal Navy as a midshipman, then in the British Army as 2nd lieutenant in the 3rd Battalion of the King's Own Scottish Borderers from 1889 to 1891.
He went to Kalgoorlie, Australia, as a gold prospector during the gold rush beginning in 1893, and later managed a road house in Canada. He returned to London, where he engaged in some failed financial undertakings. In 1911 he went to the United States where he worked as a reporter on New York City and Chicago newspapers.

Dealings with his father and Oscar Wilde

Douglas, not his father's heir until his elder brother's death, had a troubled relationship with his father, who once called him "that so-called skunk of a son of mine". The atheist ninth Marquess disowned him for marrying a clergyman's daughter in 1893 before going to Australia, but effected a reconciliation when he returned. During the Oscar Wilde trials in 1895, his father assaulted him on a London street, leading to both men being bound over to keep the peace for £500. In 1900 his dying father spat on him when he came to visit.
Three weeks following their father's funeral, the new Marquess and Lord Alfred visited Wilde in Paris, where the Anglo-Irish Wilde recalled that they were "in deep mourning and the highest spirits. The English are like this." He dissipated what remained of the family fortune in less than eighteen months and was sued for bankruptcy in December 1901.

Family

The Marquess was married twice:
The Marquess died on 1 August 1920 in Johannesburg, South Africa, aged 51, and was succeeded as 11th Marquess by his elder son.