Alan Percy, 8th Duke of Northumberland

His Grace The Duke of Northumberland KG, CBE, MVO, TD
Alan Ian Percy, in a Grenadier Guards uniform, by Alexander Bassano - 1900s
Lord Lieutenant of Northumberland
In office 19 July 1918 – 23 August 1930
Personal details
Born	17 April 1880 London
Died	23 August 1930 (aged 50) London
Spouse(s)	Lady Helen Gordon-Lennox
Parents	Henry Percy, 7th Duke of Northumberland Lady Edith Campbell

Alan Ian Percy, 8th Duke of Northumberland KG, CBE, MVO, TD (17 April 1880 – 23 August 1930) was the son of Henry Percy, 7th Duke of Northumberland, and Lady Edith Campbell.

Military career

Percy was a second lieutenant of the 2nd Volunteer Battalion the Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regiment), when he was admitted as a second lieutenant in the Grenadier Guards on 24 January 1900.^[1] He served as a Captain in the Grenadier Guards during the South African War from 1901 to 1902, obtaining the Queen's Medal. In 1908 he was in the Sudan Campaign, taking part in the operations in Southern Kordofan and gaining the Egyptian medal. For a time he acted as Aide-de-Camp to Earl Grey. During his time as ADC in Canada, he undertook a wager to walk 111 miles from one city to another in three days - despite blizzards and heavy snowfall, he completed the challenge and won the wager. During the First World War he served with the Grenadier Guards, working with the Intelligence Department to provide eyewitness accounts of battles and the front line. His brother Lord William Percy also served during the War: wounded in 1915, he spent the remainder of the War working as a military attorney. He was made a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur.

Other activities

The Duke was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Northumberland. For one year before his death he served as Chancellor of the University of Durham, a role his father had also held. From 1922 until his death he financed and directed the Patriot, a radical right-wing weekly which published Nesta Webster and promulgated a mix of anti-communism and anti-semitism.^[2]

Marriage and family

On 18 October 1911, Percy married Lady Helen Magdalan Gordon-Lennox (daughter of Charles Gordon-Lennox, 7th Duke of Richmond). They had six children:^[3]

• Henry George Alan Percy, 9th Duke of Northumberland (15 July 1912, killed in action 21 May 1940)
• Hugh Algernon Percy, 10th Duke of Northumberland (6 April 1914, died 11 October 1988) he married Lady Elizabeth Montagu Douglas Scott on 12 June 1946. They have seven children.
• Lady Elizabeth Ivy Percy (25 May 1916-16 September 2008) she married Douglas Douglas-Hamilton, 14th Duke of Hamilton on 2 December 1937. They have five children.
• Lady Diana Evelyn Percy (23 November 1917, died 16 June 1978) she married John Egerton, 6th Duke of Sutherland on 29 April 1939. They had no children.
• Lord Richard Charles Percy (11 February 1921-20 December 1989) he married Sarah Jane Elizabeth Norton on 10 September 1966. They have two children. He remarried Hon. Clayre Campbell in 1979.
  • Algernon Alan Percy (17 March 1969)
  • Josceline Richard Percy (June 1971)
• Lord Geoffrey William Percy (8 July 1925-4 December 1984) he married Mary Elizabeth Lea on 27 May 1955. They have one daughter:
  • Diana Ruth Percy (22 November 1956)

The 8th Duke died in 1930 and was buried in the Northumberland Vault, within Westminster Abbey.^[4] He was succeeded in the dukedom and his other titles by his eldest son, Henry.

Ancestry

Ancestors of Alan Percy, 8th Duke of Northumberland

16. Algernon Percy, 1st Earl of Beverley               8. George Percy, 5th Duke of Northumberland                       17. Isabella Burrell               4. Algernon Percy, 6th Duke of Northumberland                             18. The Hon. James Stuart-Wortley-Mackenzie               9. Louisa Stuart-Wortley-Mackenzie                       19. Margaret Cunynghame               2. Henry Percy, 7th Duke of Northumberland                                   20. Henry Drummond               10. Henry Drummond                       21. The Hon. Anne Dundas               5. Louisa Drummond                             22. Robert Hay-Drummond, 10th Earl of Kinnoull               11. Lady Henrietta Hay-Drummond                       23. Sarah Harley               1. Alan Percy, 8th Duke of Northumberland                                         24. John Campbell, 5th Duke of Argyll               12. John Campbell, 7th Duke of Argyll                       25. Elizabeth Gunning, 1st Baroness Hamilton of Hameldon               6. George Campbell, 8th Duke of Argyll                             26. John Glassel               13. Joan Glassel                       27. Helen Buchan               3. Lady Edith Campbell                                   28. George Leveson-Gower, 1st Duke of Sutherland               14. George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 2nd Duke of Sutherland                       29. Elizabeth Gordon, 19th Countess of Sutherland               7. Lady Elizabeth Sutherland-Leveson-Gower                             30. George Howard, 6th Earl of Carlisle               15. Lady Harriet Howard                       31. Lady Georgiana Cavendish

Works

• A Year Ago: Eye-witness's Narrative of the War from March 30th to July 18th, 1915, with E. D. Swinton, Longmans, Green & Co., 1916.
• "The Realities of the Situation," The Patriot, Vol. I, No. 1, February 9, 1922.
• First Jewish Bid For World Power, Reprinted from the Patriot, January, 1930.

Other

• W. H. Mallock, Democracy; being an Abridged Edition of 'The Limits of Pure Democracy', with an introduction by the Duke of Northumberland, Chapman & Hall, Ltd., 1924.

References

1. The London Gazette: no. 27156. p. 431. 23 January 1900.
2. Markku Ruotsila, 'The Antisemitism of the Eighth Duke of Northumberland's the Patriot, 1922-1930', Journal of Contemporary History 39:1 (2004), 71–92
3. The Peerage, entry for 8th Duke of Northumberland
4. Elizabeth, Duchess of Northumberland - Westminster Abbey

Further reading

• Ruotsila, Markku (2005). "The Catholic Apostolic Church in British Politics," Journal of Ecclesiastical History, Vol. LVI (1), pp. 75–91.

External links

• Works by or about Alan Percy, 8th Duke of Northumberland at Internet Archive
• Alnwick Castle website
• Pedigree at Genealogics