Charles Vane, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry, Irish colonel and diplomat, Under-Secretary of State for War and the Colonies (b. 1778)
Charles William Vane, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry, (born Charles William Stewart; 1778–1854), was an Anglo-Irish nobleman, British soldier and politician. He served in the French Revolutionary Wars, in the suppression of the Irish Rebellion of 1798, and in the Napoleonic wars. He excelled as a cavalry commander in the Peninsular War under John Moore and Arthur Wellesley (the later Duke of Wellington).
On leaving Wellington's command, his half-brother Lord Castlereagh helped him to launch a diplomatic career. He was posted to Berlin in 1813, and then as Ambassador to Austria, where his half-brother was the British plenipotentiary at the Congress of Vienna.
He married Lady Catherine Bligh in 1804 and then, in 1819, Lady Frances Anne Vane, a rich heiress, changing his surname to hers, thus being called Charles Vane instead of Charles Stewart from there on. In 1822 he succeeded his half-brother as 3rd Marquess of Londonderry, inheriting estates in the north of Ireland where, as an unyielding landlord, his reputation suffered in the Great Famine. It was a reputation he matched as a coal operator on his wife's land in County Durham. In opposition to the Mines and Collieries Act of 1842, he insisted on his right to employ child labour.
1854Mar, 6
Charles Vane, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry
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Events on 1854
- 31Mar
Convention of Kanagawa
Commodore Matthew Perry signs the Convention of Kanagawa with the Tokugawa Shogunate, opening the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate to American trade. - 1Apr
Hard Times (novel)
Charles Dickens' novel Hard Times begins serialisation in his magazine Household Words. - 19Aug
Grattan massacre
The First Sioux War begins when United States Army soldiers kill Lakota chief Conquering Bear and in return are massacred. - 27Sep
SS Arctic disaster
The steamship SS Arctic sinks with 300 people on board. This marks the first great disaster in the Atlantic Ocean. - 9Oct
Siege of Sevastopol (1854-55)
Crimean War: The siege of Sebastopol begins.