sketcher, soldier and public servant, was born on 2 December 1833, second son of John William Robert Kerr, seventh Marquess of Lothian, and Lady Cecil Chetwyn Talbot. A lieutenant in the Royal Scots Lothian Regiment in 1852, he accompanied his fellow lieutenant Lord Henry Scott and Lord Henry’s tutor, the Rev. Henry Stobart , on a voyage to South Africa, Australia, the Pacific and India. All three travellers sketched. Stobart wrote in his journal on 6 June 1853, when they were staying with the Bishop of Newcastle at Morpeth: 'The second day I rode with Mr Blomfield into Maitland … Henry and Schomberg remained sketching in the morning until the Bishop had finished his work’.
Although surviving views from the voyage are generally given to Lord Henry, most are unsigned and present obvious problems of attribution. The Mitchell Library holds a small group of originals and photographs of others, but the majority remain with Lord Henry’s family into which, on 23 February 1865, Lord Schomberg married. His wife, Lady Victoria Alexandrina, daughter of the Duke of Buccleuch, was Henry’s sister. They had three sons and five daughters. On 4 July 1870 Schomberg succeeded his brother as ninth Marquess of Lothian. He was appointed secretary of state for Scotland in 1887, and he died in London on 17 January 1900.
- Writers:
- Staff Writer
- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 2011
