Raymond Asquith

Raymond Herbert Asquith (6 November 1878 – 15 September 1916) was an English barrister and eldest son of British prime minister H. H. Asquith. A distinguished Oxford scholar, he was a member of the fashionable group of intellectuals known as the Coterie, notable for their unconventional lifestyles and lavish hospitality. Like several of them, Asquith was killed in action in the First World War during his father's term in office.[2]

Not to be confused with Raymond Asquith, 3rd Earl of Oxford and Asquith.

Raymond Asquith
Born6 November 1878
Hampstead, London, England[1]
Died15 September 1916(1916-09-15) (aged 37)
near Ginchy, France
Cause of deathKilled in action
Resting placeCWGC Guillemont Road Cemetery
NationalityBritish
EducationWinchester College
Balliol College, Oxford
OccupationLawyer
Spouse(s)Katharine Frances Horner
Children
Parent(s)
Military career
Allegiance United Kingdom
Service/branch British Army
Years of service1915-17
Unit3rd Battalion, Grenadier Guards
Battles/warsFirst World War

Career and honours

Asquith was the eldest son of British prime minister H. H. Asquith by his first wife, Helen Kelsall Melland (died 1891).

He was educated at Winchester, from where he won a scholarship to Balliol in 1896, taking with him a reputation for brilliance. He won the Ireland, Derby, and Craven scholarships, and graduated with first-class honours. Elected a fellow of All Souls in 1902, he was called to the bar in 1904.[3] The tall, handsome Asquith was a member of the Coterie, a group of Edwardian socialites and intellectuals.

Asquith was junior counsel in the North Atlantic Fisheries Arbitration and the British Wreck Commissioner's inquiry into the sinking of the RMS Titanic, and was considered a putative Liberal candidate for Derby. However, his rise was interrupted by the outbreak of the First World War. He was initially commissioned, on 17 December 1914, as a second lieutenant into the 16th (County of London) Battalion, London Regiment (Queen's Westminster Rifles).[4] He was transferred to the 3rd Battalion, Grenadier Guards on 14 August 1915,[5] and assigned as a staff officer, but he requested to be returned to active duty with his battalion, a request granted before the Battle of the Somme.

While leading the first half of 4 Company in an attack near Ginchy on 15 September 1916, at the Battle of Flers-Courcelette, he was shot in the chest but famously lit a cigarette to hide the seriousness of his injuries so that his men would continue the attack.[6] He died whilst being carried back to British lines. His body was buried at Guillemont in the CWGC Guillemont Road Cemetery (Plot I. Row B. Grave 3.). The grave's headstone is inscribed: 'Small time but in that small most greatly lived this star of England',[7] a concluding line from Shakespeare's Henry V.

In his 1928 obituary tribute to H.H. Asquith, Winston Churchill summarized Asquith's last moments:

"It seemed quite easy for Raymond Asquith, when the time came, to face death and to die. When I saw him at the Front he seemed to move through the cold, squalor and peril of the winter trenches as if he were above and immune from the common ills of the flesh, a being clad in polished armour, entirely undisturbed, presumably invulnerable. The War which found the measure of so many, never got to the bottom of him, and when the Grenadiers strode into the crash and thunder of the Somme, he went to his fate cool, poised, resolute, matter of fact, debonair. And well we know that his father, then bearing the supreme burden of the State, would proudly have marched at his side"[8]

The writer John Buchan devoted several pages of his autobiography Memory Hold-the-Door to his friendship with Asquith. He noted of Raymond's character:

"I do not think he could ever have been called popular. He was immensely admired, but he did not lay himself out to acquire popularity, and in the ordinary man he inspired awe rather than liking. His courtesy was without warmth, he was apt to be intolerant of mediocrity, and he had no desire for facile acquaintanceships. Also – let it be admitted – there were times when he was almost inhuman. He would destroy some piece of honest sentiment with a jest, and he had no respect for the sacred places of dull men. There was always a touch of scorn in him for obvious emotions, obvious creeds, and all the accumulated lumber of prosaic humanity. That was a defect of his great qualities. He kept himself for his friends and refused to bother about the world. But as such who were to his friendship he would deny nothing. I have never known a friend more considerate, and tender, and painstaking, and unfalteringly loyal. It was the relation of all others in life for which he had been born with a peculiar genius."[9]

Asquith's grave in Guillemont Road Cemetery
Memorial tablet in Amiens Cathedral
Memorial in St Andrew's Church in Mells
Battlefield cross for Asquith, in St Andrew's Church in Mells

Memorials

A memorial tablet to Asquith's memory was erected in Amiens Cathedral. The inscription, in French and Latin, states:

Priez pour l'âme de RAYMOND ASQUITH Lieutenant aux Grenadiers de la Garde Royale. Fils ainé de Herbert Henry Asquith premier ministre du Royaume Uni. Né le 6 Nov. 1878. Tombé au champ d'honneur près de Guinchy le 15 Sept. 1916.

O ORIENS SPLENDOR LUCIS AETERNAE VENI ET ILLUMINA SEDENTES IN TENEBRIS ET UMBRA MORTIS. Gloriae memor posuit conjux.

He is also the subject of a memorial in St Andrew's Church near the family home in Mells in Somerset, and is listed on Mells War Memorial; both memorials were designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, a friend of the Asquith family.[10] The St Andrew's Church memorial wording is:

In piam memoriam Raymondi Asquith Coll. Wintoniensis et Balliolensis scholaris Coll. Omnium Animarum socii qui in foro et republica ad omnia ingenii virtutisque praemia spe et votis aequalium destinatus medio in flore aetatis armis pro patria sumptis fortiter pugnans occidit defunctum terra tenet longinqua et amica desiderio inexpleto prosequuntur sui
N. VI NOV. MDCCCLXXVIII OB. XV SEPT. MCMXVI[11]

In English the text reads:

In loving memory of Raymond Asquith Scholar of Winchester College and Balliol College Fellow of All Souls College Who was destined by the hopes and desires of his contemporaries To win all the rewards of intellectual talent and virtue. In the middle of the flower of his life He took up arms for his native-land and died fighting bravely. A distant and friendly land holds him now he is dead. His family and friends mourn him with unrequited longing. Born on 6 November 1878, died on 15 September 1916.[12]

Asquith and his wife Katharine are portrayed in Phoebe Traquair's apse mural in All Saints Church, at Thorney Hill, he also appears in William Rothenstein's unfinished mural "War Cartoon" located at the University of Southampton.

Family
Raymond Asquith and his wife in 1913

Raymond Asquith was married on 25 July 1907 to Katharine Frances Horner (1885–1976),[13][14] younger daughter[15] of Sir John Francis Fortescue Horner, of Mells, Somerset, descended from Thomas Horner, the Tudor figure on whom the nursery rhyme 'Little Jack Horner' is sometimes said to be based.[16] Her mother, Lady Horner (d. 1940), was Frances Jane Graham, elder daughter of William Graham, a rich merchant, passionate art collector, and Liberal member of parliament for Glasgow.[17] Lady Horner was a notable hostess and patron of the arts, especially the Pre-Raphaelites and John Singer Sargent. The Horners had four children – Cicely (born 1883), Katharine (1885), Mark (who died in his teens), and Edward (1888).

Asquith and his wife had three children:

  • Lady Helen Frances Asquith OBE (1908–2000), a school teacher and inspector who died unmarried
  • Lady Perdita Rose Mary Asquith (1910–1996) who married the 4th Baron Hylton (d 1967)
  • Julian Edward George Asquith, 2nd Earl of Oxford and Asquith, KCMG (1916–2011), nicknamed Trim, who was born a few months before his father's death on active service. The new baby was reputedly named "Trim" in honour of the Roman gourmand Trimalchio, after his father saw his newborn son for the first time while on leave from the war.[18]

Asquith died nearly ten years before his father was raised to the House of Lords in 1925 as Earl of Oxford and Asquith. Katharine eventually inherited Mells Manor because her younger and only surviving brother, Edward Horner (1888–1917), was also killed in the war.[19] He was buried in France, but his memorial in St Andrew's Church, Mells was designed by his mother's friend Edwin Lutyens, who was a patron of Monsignor Ronald Knox. Katharine converted to Roman Catholicism after being widowed and became a friend of Siegfried Sassoon, who also converted, following her example.[20] She also remained in touch with Evelyn Waugh, another convert.[21] All three of her children were brought up as Roman Catholics.

References
  1. 1881 England Census
  2. "Mr. Asquith's Bereavement – Message of Sympathy from the King". The Times. The Times Digital Archive. 20 September 1916. p. 11.
  3. Asquith and the Conspiracy to Sink Titanic: ET Research (2004) by Senan Molony – 9 July 2004. Encyclopedia-titanica.org. Retrieved on 2012-06-24.
  4. "No. 29027". The London Gazette. 1 January 1915. p. 132.
  5. "No. 29262". The London Gazette. 13 August 1915. p. 8024.
  6. Farrah-Hockley, Anthony (1966). The Somme. p. 238.
  7. "Casualty Details: Asquith, Raymond". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
  8. Clifford, Colin (2003). "The Asquiths." London: John Murray Page 366
  9. Buchan, John (1940). "Pilgrim's Way." Cambridge: Houghton Mifflin Pages 52-53
  10. Historic England. "Mells War Memorial (1058315)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 7 February 2016.
  11. Pym, Dora; Silver, Nancy, eds. (1952). "Raymond Asquith's Epitaph". Alive on men's lips: an anthology of Rome and the Latin language in the life of twenty centuries. p. 142.
  12. Inglis, Susan (18 September 2008). "A Visit to… Mells". Retrieved 18 January 2018.
  13. Lundy, Darryl. "Katharine Frances Horner". The Peerage. Retrieved 29 January 2018.
  14. The Papers of Alfred Duff Cooper (1st Viscount Norwich). janus.lib.cam.ac.uk
  15. See Oxford DNB: Frances Horner and Encyclopedia Titanica. Her elder sister Cicely Horner (1883–1972), wife since 1908 of the Hon. George Lambton (1860–1945), fifth son of the 2nd Earl of Durham was painted by John Singer Sargent.
  16. "A Journey to Mells". 14 February 2006. Archived from the original on 5 December 2008. Retrieved 24 June 2012.CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link). andrewcusack.com (14 February 2006).
  17. theglasgowstory.com
  18. Clarissa Eden (2007) A Memoir: From Churchill to Eden
  19. "Apollo Magazine, 7 August 2007". Retrieved 5 February 2008.
  20. "Mells Report" Archived 28 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine. Warpoets.org. Retrieved on 2012-06-24.
  21. "Without Waugh, there would be no adventure – Telegraph". Telegraph.co.uk (27 May 2003). Retrieved on 2012-06-24.

Sources
  • Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. K. D. Reynolds, 'Horner, Frances Jane, Lady Horner (1854/5–1940)’, first published September 2004, 580 words, with portrait illustration. Oxford DNB: Frances Horner (citation only), full article available via subscription only.
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