In 1920, Sir Claude Champion de Crespigny (1847-1935), fourth baronet, who was my fourth cousin three times removed, challenged another of my distant relatives, Lord Kenyon (Lloyd Tyrell-Kenyon (1864 – 1927)), Sir Claude’s first cousin once removed*, to a duel.

Lord Kenyon ignored this and repeated challenges from Sir Claude, ignored a white feather, imputing cowardice, which Sir Claude sent him on his birthday, and ignored Sir Claude’s condemnation of a portrait of him in uniform ‘in full war kit’, seeming to imply that Lord Kenyon was not enough of a soldier to deserve it.**

Lord Kenyon, 4th Baronet in Welsh Horse Colonel’s uniform. ‘The Gift of the Officers, N.C.O.s and Privates of the 2/1 Welsh Horse to their Commanding Officer, 1915′. Painted by Rose Dempster Bonnor and exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1916.

I do not know why Sir Claude took exception to the portrait of his cousin nor the reason for Sir Claude’s antipathy towards him. I have been unable to find any further explanation in digitised newspapers.

Lord Kenyon claimed that the dispute was over inherited property.

A paragraph or two in an English-language Hong Kong newspaper, syndicating news from Home, offers the comment that “Whatever the eventual method chosen for composing the quarrel may be, it will almost certainly not be lawsuit. Both the disputants have a horror of law and lawyers.”***

In the end, Sir Claude’s challenge went unmet. Lord Kenyon failed to reply to his cousin’s correspondence, and the acrimony was never resolved.

Crewe Chronicle 13 November 1920
Hong Kong Daily Press 17 November 1920

* Sir Claude’s mother, Mary (Tyrell) Champion de Crespigny (1824 – 1876), was a sister of Lord Kenyon’s grandmother, Sarah (Tyrell) Ormsby-Gore (1827 – 1898).

** I believe the portrait referred to was painted in 1916 by Rose Dempster Bonnor (1873-1967) and it was shown at the Royal Academy. It is currently for sale through War & Son of Leominster, Herefordshire. The portrait shows Lord Kenyon, 4th Baronet in Welsh Horse Colonel’s uniform and is inscribed ‘The Gift of the Officers, N.C.O.s and Privates of the 2/1 Welsh Horse to their Commanding Officer, 1915’. The portrait sellers summarise Lord Kenyon’s military career as “an illustrious one, first serving in the Shropshire Yeomanry, promoted Lieutenant in 1886, Captain in 1889 and Major on 14 December 1901, finally Lieutenant-Colonel commanding the regiment from 1907 to 1912. Awarded the Territorial Decoration in 1909, Lord Kenyon was then promoted full Colonel and made A.D.C. to King George V in 1912. During WWI he served as commanding officer of the 2/1st Welsh Horse Yeomanry from 1914 to 1916 before serving Loyd George’s government.”

*** Hong Kong Daily Press 17 November 1920

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