Alan Percy, 8th Duke of Northumberland

Alan Ian Percy was a second lieutenant in the Grenadier Guards on 24 January 1900. 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 ADC 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. Alan Ian was made a Chevalier of the Legion d'honneur. He was also 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. On 18 October 1911, he married Lady Helen Magdalan Gordon-Lennox (daughter of Charles Gordon-Lennox, 7th Duke of Richmond). They had six children.

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