Lady William Lennox

Identified on the album page as ‘Lady William Lennox,' this is probably the third wife of Lord William Pitt Lennox (1799-1881), fourth son of the 4th Duke of Richmond.

After a stint in the Royal Horse Guards – he was for three years an aide-de-camp to Wellington – Lennox was briefly the Member of Parliament for King’s Lynn. However, he was more interested in sport and literature, and preferred a life of gaiety and leisure. He was devoted to horse racing, delighted in private theatricals, and once ran a hundred yards race in Hill Street, Berkeley Square, at midnight. He figured in Benjamin Disraeli's Vivian Grey as Lord Prima Donna (1827). He died at 34 Hans Place, Sloane Street, London, on 18 February 1881, and was buried in Brompton cemetery.

He married three times. The first marriage to a singer, Mary Anne Paton, was dissolved by a Scottish court. His second wife died five years after their marriage. On 17 November 1863 he married, thirdly, Mary Jane Molyneux, eldest daughter of the Reverned Capel Molyneux. In 1888 she published a novel entitled Castle Heather.

Photographed by Merrick of Brighton.