Francis Archibald Douglas, Viscount Drumlanrig (3 February 1867–19 October 1894) was a Scottish nobleman and politician, the eldest son of the 9th Marquess of Queensberry. February 3 is the 34th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1867 (MDCCCLXVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... October 19 is the 292nd day of the year (293rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1894 (MDCCCXCIV) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Motto: (Latin for No one provokes me with impunity)1 Anthem: Multiple unofficial anthems Capital Edinburgh Largest city Glasgow Official language(s) English, Gaelic, Scots2 Government Constitutional monarchy  - Queen Queen Elizabeth II  - Prime Minister Tony Blair MP  - First Minister Jack McConnell MSP Unification    - by Kenneth I 843  Area    - Total 78... John Sholto Douglas (1844-1900) was an eccentric Scottish nobleman, the 9th Marquess of Queensberry and Viscount Drumlanrig. ...

He was educated at Harrow School and later served as a Private Secretary to the Liberal politician Lord Rosebery. Thanks to Rosebery's patronage, on 22 June 1893 he was raised to the Peerage of the United Kingdom as Baron Kelhead, of Kelhead in the County of Dumfries. This provided him with a seat in the House of Lords, which was denied to his father, whose titles were all in the Peerage of Scotland. Harrow School, normally just known as Harrow, is a prestigious and internationally known independent school for boys, located on Harrow on the Hill in North West London. ... This article is about the historic Liberal Party. ... Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, KG, PC (7 May 1847–21 May 1929) was a British Liberal statesman and Prime Minister, also known as Archibald Primrose (1847-1851) and Lord Dalmeny (1851-1868). ... June 22 is the 173rd day of the year (174th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 192 days remaining. ... 1893 (MDCCCXCIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... The Peerage of the United Kingdom comprises most peerages created in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland after the Act of Union in 1801. ... This article is about the British House of Lords. ... The Peerage of Scotland is the division of the British Peerage for those peers created in the Kingdom of Scotland before 1707. ...

Lord Drumlanrig's father served in Parliament from 1872 to 1880 as a representative peer, but in 1880 he refused, as an atheist, to take the religious oath of allegiance to the Queen. He was not allowed to take his seat and was never again chosen as representative peer by the Scottish nobles. His son's accession to Parliament as the 1st Baron Kelhead precipitated a bitter dispute between them and also between Queensberry and Lord Rosebery, who became Prime Minister in 1894. 1872 (MDCCCLXXII) was a leap year starting on Monday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a leap year starting on Wednesday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar. ... 1880 (MDCCCLXXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... In the United Kingdom, representative peers were individuals elected by the members of the Peerage of Scotland and the Peerage of Ireland to represent them in the British House of Lords. ... Atheism, in its broadest sense, is the absence of theism (the belief in the existence of deities). ... Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria) (24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837, and the first Empress of India from 1 January 1877, until her death in 1901. ... Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, KG, PC (7 May 1847–21 May 1929) was a British Liberal statesman and Prime Minister, also known as Archibald Primrose (1847-1851) and Lord Dalmeny (1851-1868). ... The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the head of Her Majestys Government and so exercises many of the executive functions nominally vested in the Sovereign, who is head of state. ... 1894 (MDCCCXCIV) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ...

Eighteen months after his ennoblement, Lord Drumlanrig died in a hunting accident in October 1894. He was unmarried and his younger brother Lord Percy Douglas became heir to his father's titles. 1894 (MDCCCXCIV) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ...

It has been speculated that Lord Drumlanrig may have had a homosexual relationship with Rosebery, and further, that Queensberry had threatened to expose Rosebery if his government did not vigorously prosecute Oscar Wilde in the affair stemming from Wilde's relationship with Francis Douglas's younger brother Lord Alfred Douglas. Rosebery was, by most accounts, happily married until the death of his wife in 1890. However, gossip that Rosebery was homosexual or bisexual was certainly widespread. Queensbery believed that, as he phrased it to Lord Alfred in a letter, "Snob Queers like Rosebery" ^[1] had corrupted his sons, and held Rosebery indirectly responsible for Francis's death. As with the suggestion that Drumlanrig's death may have been suicide, surviving evidence to support these claims is inconclusive. Since its coinage, the word homosexuality has acquired multiple meanings. ... Oscar Fingal OFlahertie Wills Wilde (October 16, 1854 – November 30, 1900) was an Anglo-Irish playwright, novelist, poet, short story writer and Freemason. ... Lord Alfred Douglas Lord Alfred Bruce Douglas (October 22, 1870 – March 20, 1945), nicknamed Bosie, was the third son of John Sholto Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry, and Sibyl Montgomery. ... 1890 (MDCCCXC) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar). ... Suicide (from Latin sui caedere, to kill oneself) is the act of willfully ending ones own life. ...

Notes

1. ↑  1. Lord Queensbery to Lord Alfred Douglas,1 November, 1894, in Bosie. Douglas, Murray. Hodder & Stoughton00. 2000.

References

• Genealogical information from thePeerage.com
• Data on the Barony of Kelhead
• "Why was Wilde Persecuted?" from an article by A.J.H. Morris in the Queensland Bar News (2003).