Jump to content

Julian Asquith, 2nd Earl of Oxford and Asquith

From Catholicism Wiki
The Right Honourable
The Earl of Oxford and Asquith
KCMG
Julian Asquith, at Hamama, in 1943
Julian Asquith, at Hamama, in 1943
Governor of the Seychelles
In office
August 1962 – February 1967
Monarch Elizabeth II
Preceded by John Kingsmill Thorp
Succeeded by Sir Hugh Norman-Walker
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
Hereditary peerage
22 April 1937 – 11 November 1999
Preceded by The 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith
Succeeded by Seat abolished
The 3rd Earl of Oxford and Asquith (2014)
Personal details
Born 22 April 1916
Died 16 January 2011 (aged 94)
Party Crossbench
Spouse Anne Palairet
(m. 1947; died 1998)
Parents Raymond Asquith (father)
Katharine Horner (mother)
Relatives H. H. Asquith (grandfather)
Education Ampleforth College
Alma mater Balliol College, Oxford

Julian Edward George Asquith, 2nd Earl of Oxford and Asquith, KCMG (22 April 1916 – 16 January 2011) was a British colonial administrator and hereditary peer.

Background and education

Asquith was the only son of Katharine (née Horner) and Raymond Asquith, a barrister. He was the grandson of H. H. Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith, British Prime Minister from 1908 until 1916. Lord Oxford's two older sisters both predeceased him; the younger of these was Lady Perdita Rose Mary Asquith, later Lady Hylton (1910–1996),[1] who was married to William Jolliffe, 4th Baron Hylton and became the grandmother of the actress Anna Chancellor.

He inherited the earldom in 1928 on the death of his grandfather, since his father had been killed in the First World War. He was raised as a Roman Catholic after his mother's conversion to Catholicism in 1923. He was educated at St Ronan's School and Ampleforth College, going on to study at Balliol College, Oxford, where he graduated with Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees. In 1936, he attended the opening of the new building of Campion Hall, a Catholic institution within the University, with the Duke of Alba, Spanish ambassador to London, and Alban Goodier S.J., the former Archbishop of Bombay.[2] As Earl of Oxford and Asquith, he attended the coronation of George VI and Elizabeth and paid homage to the new monarch alongside other earls.[3]

Career

War service

Having attend the 141st Officer Cadet Training Unit, Asquith was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Engineers, British Army.[4] He served with 3 Field Squadron in Egypt.[5] He served the during the fall of Greece, which resulted in his armoured brigade loosing all its equipment in the retreat.[6] He then served on the staff of Major General Edward Spears in the Levant, while Spears was acting as Churchill's personal representative to the Free French and Charles de Gaulle.[6] He returned to his unite and was posted to Safad, Palestine, where he learnt Arabic.[6]

While serving in the British Army in Palestine, Sir John Macpherson, the chief secretary of the British Mandate of Palestine, invited him to join the Colonial Service.[6] From 1942 to 1948, he was an assistant district commissioner in Palestine.

Asquith resigned his commission on 6 January 1954, and was allowed to the retain the honorary rank of lieutenant.[7]

Colonial service

After the war, Lord Oxford pursued a career in the Colonial Service. He was Deputy chairman Secretary of the British Administration Tripolitania from 1949 to 1950, Director of Interior Tripolitania in 1951 and Advisor to the Prime Minister of Libya in 1952. In 1955 he was Administrative Secretary of Zanzibar and from 1958 to 1962 was the Administrator of Saint Lucia. He was appointed Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1961.

Oxford was the Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Seychelles from 1962 to 1967, and the Commissioner of the British Indian Ocean Territory from 1965 to 1967. In 1964, he was advanced as Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George. He also held the posts of Constitutional Commander of the Cayman Islands in 1971, and Turks and Caicos Islands from 1973 to 1974.

Marriage and children

On 28 August 1947, Lord Oxford married Anne Mary Celestine Palairet,[8] daughter of Mary de Vere Studd and Sir Michael Palairet (1882–1956)[9] at the Brompton Oratory. Anne Oxford was also a Roman Catholic via her parents' conversions.

Lord and Lady Oxford had five children: three daughters (the second of which is married to a diplomat) and two sons, both diplomats:

Lord Oxford inherited the estate of Mells Manor from his mother Katharine Asquith, the younger daughter of Frances Jane (née Graham) and Sir John Francis Fortescue Horner.

The Countess of Oxford and Asquith died in 1998. The Earl died, aged 94, on 16 January 2011.[13] He was succeeded in his peerage titles, which he had held for over 80 years, by his elder son, Raymond (b. 1952), a former British diplomat and elected hereditary member of the House of Lords.

Arms

Coat of arms of Julian Asquith, 2nd Earl of Oxford and Asquith
Crest
Issuant out of clouds proper, a mascle gules.
Escutcheon
Sable, on a fesse between three cross-crosslets argent a portcullis of the field.
Supporters
On either side a lion purpure, charged on the shoulder with an open book argent, edged or.
Motto
Sine macula macla (Stained without stain).
Orders
The Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George (Knight Commander - KCMG)[14]

References

  1. Back to citation Lady Perdita Asquith
  2. Back to citation "Campion Hall Pages 339-340 A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 3, the University of Oxford. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1954". British History Online.
  3. Back to citation "No. 34453". The London Gazette (Supplement). 10 November 1937. pp. 7057–7060.
  4. Back to citation "No. 34883". The London Gazette (Supplement). 25 June 1940. p. 3924.
  5. Back to citation Royal Engineers: 3 (Cheshire) Field Squadron (Fd Sqn RE). The National Archives, London: The National Archives. January 1941.
  6. Back to citation occurrence 6.0 Back to citation occurrence 6.1 Back to citation occurrence 6.2 Back to citation occurrence 6.3 "The Earl of Oxford and Asquith". The Times. 19 January 2011. Retrieved 22 August 2026.
  7. Back to citation "No. 40064". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 January 1954. p. 151.
  8. Back to citation Neville, P. (2004-09-23). Palairet, Sir (Charles) Michael (1882–1956), diplomatist. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 8 Dec. 2017, see link
  9. Back to citation "Palairet, Sir Michael, (29 Sept. 1882–5 Aug. 1956)", Who Was Who, Oxford University Press, 1 December 2007, doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u241530, ISBN 978-0-19-954089-1, retrieved 12 September 2021
  10. Back to citation L. G. Pine, The New Extinct Peerage 1884–1971: Containing Extinct, Abeyant, Dormant and Suspended Peerages with Genealogies and Arms (London: Heraldry Today, 1972), pp. 16, 276
  11. Back to citation Charles V Kidd, David Williamson, eds., Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (Debrett's Peerage Ltd, 1990, ISBN 0312046405), p. 950
  12. Back to citation Burke's Peerage, volume 2 (2003), p. 3,036
  13. Back to citation "Obituaries – The Earl of Oxford and Asquith". The Daily Telegraph. 17 January 2011.
  14. Back to citation Morris, Susan (2019). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage 2019. eBook Partnership. ISBN 9781999767051.

Bibliography

  • Who's Who 2007 "Oxford and Asquith, The Earl of" and "Asquith, Dominic"
  • "Obituary: The Countess of Oxford and Asquith", Daily Telegraph, 1998.
  • John Joliffe. "Obituary: The Countess of Oxford and Asquith" The Independent, 7 September 1998, available online.
  • Burke's Peerage & Landed Gentry: Oxford and Asquith[], full article only by subscription.

Media related to Julian Asquith, 2nd Earl of Oxford and Asquith at Wikimedia Commons

Retrieved from "https://catholicism.wiki/index.php?title=Julian_Asquith,_2nd_Earl_of_Oxford_and_Asquith&oldid=95615"