Middlesex Duke of Cambridge’s Hussars, Yeomanry Cavalry

Lord Denman GCMG KCVO

Thomas Denman was born on 16 Nov 1874, the son of Richard Denman and Helen Mary McMicking. His father was grandson to the 1st Baron Denman. His parents divorced when he was 4 and his father died four years later. In 1894, when Thomas was 19, he inherited the title and became the 3rd Baron Denman. He entered Sandhurst and was commissioned into the Royal Scots, promoted to lieutenant on 4 Mar 1896. In May 1899 he went into the Reserve but on 3 Feb 1900 he transferred to the Middlesex Hussars which was then in the 11th Battalion, Imperial Yeomanry. He went out to South Africa with them and was promoted to Captain on 18 July 1900, and after the Boer War was promoted to major on 30 April 1902. The photo shows him in 1902 in the levee dress uniform of the Middlesex Hussars with the rank of major.
Although not wealthy, his finances improved when he married Gertrude the daughter of industrialist, Weetman Pearson. This allowed him to devote more time to public life and he served in the Liberal administrations of Campbell-Bannerman and H H Asquith. He was Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms and government chief whip in the House of Lords from 1905-07. In 1907 he resigned his commission and was appointed to the Privy Council. In 1911 he was offered the post of Governor-General of Australia.
Lord Denman and his wife Gertrude arrived in Australia at the end of July 1911 and moved into Government House in Sydney. Being a Liberal, he got on well with the Labour Prime Minister Andrew Fisher, and he proved popular because of his lack of arrogance and his generosity. On 12 Mar 1913 he inaugurated the new Capital of Australia and announced its name as Canberra. His role as Governor-General was eroded by the direct contact between the British and Australian PMs, and by the appointment of an Australian High Commissioner in London. Denman finally resigned in May 1914. It was not only because of his diminished status but because he was allergic to a local plant, the wattle, which was affecting his health. His wife was also missing the social life of London.
They arrived back in England in time for the Great War, and all the information on him says that Lord Denman was given command of a Yeomanry regiment from 1914-15. It was not the Middlesex Hussars, and it is hard to work out which regiment it was, as Hart’s Army List of 1915 does not name him as CO of any of the Yeomanry regiments. He did not play an active part in politics after this and lived quietly in Hove, Sussex until his death on 24 June 1954.

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