Newton Wallop, 6th Earl of Portsmouth JP, DL (19 January 1856 – 4 December 1917), styled Viscount Lymington until 1891, was born at Hurstbourne Priors, Hampshire, the eldest son of Isaac Newton Wallop, 5th Earl of Portsmouth, and Lady Eveline Alicia Juliana Herbert, daughter of the 3rd Earl of Carnarvon. He was educated at Eton College and later at Balliol College, Oxford, where he served as President of the Oxford Union. His speeches were widely believed to have been drafted by his mother.
Lymington entered Parliament at the February 1880 by-election for Barnstaple as a Liberal. He held the seat until 1885, when the constituency was reduced to a single member. At the 1885 general election he was elected MP for South Molton. In 1886 he broke with Gladstone over Irish Home Rule and joined the Liberal Unionist Party. He remained a Unionist for nearly twenty years before returning to the Liberal Party. From 1905 to 1908 he served as Under-Secretary of State for War in Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman’s administration under Richard Haldane, working alongside Sir Edward Grey and Lord Tweedmouth.
Portsmouth held local offices as Justice of the Peace for Hampshire and Devon and as Deputy Lieutenant. A committed Protestant, he chaired the United Protestant Demonstration in London on 29 January 1900, which called for the defence of the Protestant character of the nation and the suppression of the Mass and Confessional within the Established Church. His religious views were strongly expressed and widely reported.
In 1908 Portsmouth purchased Guisachan House and its extensive deer forest in Glen Affric from Lord Tweedmouth. The estate remained in the family until his widow placed it on the market in 1919. His wider landholdings had once exceeded 66,000 acres, including large Irish estates, but by the early twentieth century he had sold most of them. The Eggesford estate in Devon was gradually reduced. By 1914 the remaining 3,300 acres were offered for sale by auction, with many lots purchased by tenants. Portsmouth’s reduction of Eggesford marked the end of the family’s long-standing position in North Devon.
In 1891 the family’s principal seat, Hurstbourne Park in Hampshire, was destroyed by fire. Portsmouth and his wife, Beatrice Mary Pease, rebuilt the house and moved into the new building in 1896. The rebuilding coincided with growing financial strain. The Eggesford estate was no longer maintained as a principal residence and Eggesford House itself was abandoned in 1911. Within two decades it was stripped for materials and left as a ruin.
Portsmouth was known for his red beard and flamboyant manner, earning him the nickname “The Red Earl”. He was an early motorist, introducing a Napier car to Eggesford in 1901 and later driving a Daimler. His appearance in the district prompted comment in the local press: “A Lord in his coach without any horses … Times change … We must change with them.” By 1906 he was driving a six-cylinder Napier and was among the first in Devon to hold a driving licence. He supported road-safety legislation and the introduction of speed limits, though his own driving occasionally attracted attention.
Portsmouth died at Whitchurch, Hampshire, on 4 December 1917 aged 61. He was succeeded by his younger brother, John Fellowes Wallop, 7th Earl of Portsmouth. During the House of Lords debates of 1909 he had declared himself in favour of an elective second chamber and the voluntary surrender of hereditary privileges. His estates were largely dispersed before his death.
Portsmouth married Beatrice Mary Pease, only child of Edward Pease of Darlington, in 1885. They had no children. Beatrice survived until 1935, living at Hurstbourne Park and visiting Guisachan in Scotland, which was sold after her death. Portsmouth’s career marked the end of the family’s active political and landed influence in Devon. Eggesford House, once the centre of their estate, was abandoned in 1911 and dismantled within two decades, closing the long chapter of Portsmouth ownership in North Devon.
