Thomas Evelyn Scott-Ellis, 8th Baron Howard de Walden, 4th Baron Seaford (9 May 1880 – 5 November 1946)[1] was an English peer, landowner, writer and patron of the arts.
Thomas Ellis was born in London on 9 May 1880, the only son of the 7th Baron Howard de Walden and Blanche Ellis (née Holden), daughter of William Holden the co-heir of Palace house, Lancaster.[3][4] He was baptised with the name of Thomas Evelyn Ellis, and was known within his family as "Tommy". Educated at Eton College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, in 1917 he assumed the surname Scott-Ellis by Royal Licence.[5]
After succeeding to his family titles in 1899 he received his inherited estates when he came of age in 1901. This included a large part of Marylebone, London and earned him the title of 'Britain's wealthiest bachelor'. His fortune derived from his grandmother's estates which she had inherited as daughter of the Duke of Portland. The relatively small Ellis family estates, built on slavery and sugar estates in Jamaica, primarily Montpelier, Jamaica had been conveyed by his grandmother to his uncle, Evelyn Henry Ellis, in 1891.[11]
Lord Howard de Walden took a lease on Audley End House, Essex which had once belonged to his ancestors, in 1904 but reportedly never felt settled there. The artist Auguste Rodin created a bust of Lord Howard de Walden in 1906 which is held in the collection kept at the Rodin Museum in Philadelphia.[12] He purchased 'Croesnewydd hall' near Wrexham in 1929 which had been the home of his ancestors; that in between leasing Chirk Castle, Denbighshire from 1911 in preparation for his marriage, which became his main residence after World War I until 1946; and where he learned the Welsh language, he also spent time at 'Plas Llanina', Ceredigion.[3]
The Barony also inherited Dean Castle in Kilmarnock via inheritance from his grandmother, the 6th Baron's wife, 'Lady Lucy Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck'.[13]
A great sportsman, he was back up for the British fencing team at the 'Intercalated games' at Athens, 1906. He was a member of a Jockey club between 1905–1924, and had passions for horse-racing and sailing. He interested in powerboats,[14] and was crew member of the Dylan he participated in the first and only motor boat competitions at the Olympics of 1908 in London.[15] His steam yacht, Branwen, 135 feet (41 m) length overall, launched 28 October 1905 was the first vessel built at the John I. Thornycroft & Company's Woolston yard.[16][17]
In 1914, he provided financial support for the creation of Crab Tree Club in London and also in that year he was one of the people "blessed" in Wyndham Lewis's Blast Magazine.
Lord Howard de Walden became a keen heraldist and genealogist, as well as amassing one of the most extensive collections of British armour, most of which is now on display at Dean Castle, Kilmarnock.[21]
Augustus John, in his memoirs, recalls visiting de Walden at Chirk Castle and being "greatly impressed to find our host one morning, clad, cap-à-pie, in a suit of ancient armour and reading his newspaper."[22]
Lord Howard de Walden was also an author, who produced several operas under the pseudonym of T. E. Ellis.[3] Ellis approached composer Joseph Holbrooke with his "Dylan - Son of the Wave". his resulted in the composition of the opera "Dylan", first performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London, conducted by Artur Nikisch, on 4 July 1914. The staging included another technological wonder:
"In this work, in order to get convincing flights of wild fowl, films were made in the Outer Hebrides and projected on to the stage. This, of course, was in the days of the silent film, when there was no means of deadening the whirr or hum of the projector and the films themselves resolved into a series of flicks. The scoring, however, was vivid enough to cover the sounds, and this incipient film music was infinitely more successful than some of the over-vaunted high-level scores heard to-day. The theatre, however, was not ready for such an innovation, and the extra-musical effects were not taken seriously." (See Joseph Holbrooke Wikipedia entry).
Collaboration on two further operas, "The Children of Don" (first performed at the London Opera House, conducted by Arthur Nikisch, on 15 June 1912 - postponed from 12 June) and "Bronwen", brought about the completion of Holbrooke's most ambitious project, a trilogy under the collective title "The Cauldron of Annwn" setting Scott-Ellis' versions of tales from the Welsh "Mabinogion". Until his death in 1946, Scott-Ellis effectively acted as patron to Holbrooke, subsidising performances and publication of many of his works.His passion was to do with literature from the medieval period, especially Welsh literature. He participated in writing in the National Eisteddfod of Wales, in particular to do with the fables of the Mabinogion.[14]
In 1912, Lord Howard de Walden married Margherita Dorothy van Raalte (CBE, DStJ, born 1890 died 1974);[24] herself a collector of antiquities. Their six children were:
Hon. Bronwen Mary Scott-Ellis (b. 27 November 1912 – 2003), twin with her brother, married The Hon. James Louis Lindsay, son of the 27th Earl of Crawford and Constance Lilian Pelly, on 26 April 1933
Hon. Elisabeth Gwendolen Scott-Ellis (b. 5 December 1914 – 1976) married, firstly, Lt-Cdr Serge Orloff-Davidoff,[26] son of Count Alexis Orloff-Davidoff, on 24 July 1935. She married, secondly, Bernard Wheeler Robinson (died 1997), son of Dr. Wheeler Robinson, on 31 October 1959
Hon. (Margaret Irene) Gaenor Scott-Ellis, JP (b. 2 June 1919 – 2002) married Lieut. Richard Heathcoat-Amory, son of Lt.-Col. Harry Heathcoat-Amory JP DL and Evelyn Stanley, on 18 July 1938 (seeEarl Bathurst)
