Marlborough, Charles Richard John Spencer-Churchill, Duke of, 1871-1934

Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Richard John Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough, KG, TD, PC (13 November 1871 – 30 June 1934), styled Earl of Sunderland until 1883 and Marquess of Blandford between 1883 and 1892, was a British soldier and Conservative politician, and a close friend of his first cousin Winston Churchill. He was often known as "Sunny" Marlborough after his courtesy title of Earl of Sunderland. Born at Simla, British India, Marlborough was the only son of the then Marquess of Blandford (who succeeded as The 8th Duke of Marlborough in July 1883) and Lady Albertha Frances Anne, daughter of The 1st Duke of Abercorn. He was a nephew of Lord Randolph Churchill and a first cousin of Sir Winston Churchill,[citation needed] with whom he had a close and lifelong friendship. He was educated at Winchester College and Trinity College, Cambridge.[1] Marlborough entered the House of Lords on the early death of his father in 1892, and made his maiden speech in August 1895. He again held political office during the First World War, when he was Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries between 1917 and 1918 in David Lloyd George's coalition government.[citation needed] He made his last speech in the House of Lords in December 1931.[2]

Shortly before the coronation of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, Marlborough was invested as a Knight Companion of the Order of the Garter (KG) at Buckingham Palace on 30 May 1902.[4][5] He subsequently served as Lord High Steward at the coronation the following August (the coronation had originally been scheduled for June).[6] He went to India to attend the January 1903 Delhi Durbar as a guest of the Viceroy, Lord Curzon.[7]

The Duke of Marlborough was Mayor of Woodstock between 1907 and 1909, and Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire from 1915 until his death.[citation needed] Marlborough was appointed a lieutenant in the Queen's Own Oxfordshire Hussars in 1897. Marlborough was married twice. His first wife was the American railroad heiress Consuelo Vanderbilt, whom he married at Saint Thomas Church in New York City on 6 November 1895. The marriage was a mercenary one. Inheriting his near-bankrupt dukedom in 1892, he was forced to find a quick and drastic solution to the financial problems of his family. Prevented by the strict social dictates of late 19th-century society from earning money, he was left with one solution; to marry money.

The marriage was celebrated following lengthy negotiations with his bride's divorced parents: her mother, Alva Vanderbilt, was desperate to see her daughter a duchess, and the bride's father, William Vanderbilt, paid for the privilege. The final price was $2,500,000 (worth about $77m in 2021) in 50,000 shares of the capital stock of the Beech Creek Railway Company with a minimum 4% dividend guaranteed by the New York Central Railroad Company. The couple were each given a further annual income of $100,000 for life. The bride later claimed she had been locked in her room until she agreed to the marriage. The contract was actually signed in the vestry of St. Thomas Episcopal Church, immediately after the wedding vows had been made. Whilst they honeymooned in Europe, Marlborough told Consuelo that he actually loved another woman but had married her to "save Blenheim".[18]

They had two sons, John Spencer-Churchill, Marquess of Blandford, eventually the 10th Duke of Marlborough, and Lord Ivor Spencer-Churchill. Their mother famously referred to them as "the heir and the spare".[19] In the late 1890s, the Duke invited to Blenheim Palace Gladys Deacon, another American, who became friends with Consuelo.[23] Deacon, the daughter of Edward Parker Deacon, became the Duke's mistress soon after moving into the palace. She and Marlborough were married on 25 June 1921 in Paris, shortly after his divorce from Consuelo.[23]

Later in life the Duke converted to Catholicism in 1927, around which time the couple began drifting apart and Deacon took to keeping a revolver in her bedroom to prevent her husband’s entry.[24] He moved out of the palace, and two years later evicted her. The couple separated but n