Compton | Lord Alwyne Frederick | | Captain | COMPTON, LORD ALWYNE FREDERICK, Captain, was born 5 June, 1855, third son of the 4th Marquis of Northampton and the Marchioness of Northampton, Eliza, daughter of the Honourable Sir G Elliott, KCB. He was brother of the 5th Marquess and of Colonel Lord Douglas Compton, Countess Cowper and Lady Margaret Graham, wife of Sir Henry Graham, Clerk of Parliament. He was educated at Eton, and in 1874 he joined the Grenadier Guards, being transferred in 1879 to the 10th Hussars. With this regiment he saw service in the Sudan in 1884, and from 1885 to 1887, in which year he left, he was Adjutant. From 1882 to 1884 he had been ADC to the Viceroy of India, Lord Ripon. He subsequently joined the Bedfordshire Yeomanry, of which regiment he was in command from 1905. At the time of the South African War he raised Compton's Horse, and took part in the operations in the Transvaal in 1900, including the actions near Pretoria and at Diamond Hill. For his services he was mentioned in Despatches; received the Queen's Medal with three clasps, and was created a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order [London Gazette, 27 September 1901]: "Lord Alwyne Frederick Compton, Captain, 4th Battalion Imperial Yeomanry. For services during operations in South Africa". From 1895 to 1906 he represented the Biggleswade Division of Bedfordshire in the House of Commons, as a Unionist, having defeated Mr G W E Russell in the first-named year by a small majority. In 1900 he was returned unopposed, and at the General Election of 1906 was defeated in the same division. In January and December 1910, he was elected for the Brentford Division of Middlesex, but he subsequently resigned his seat on account of ill-health, and was succeeded by Mr Joynson-Hicks. Lord Alwyne was a partner in the firm of Messrs Panmure Gordon & Co, of the Stock Exchange, and Chairman of the West-End London Local Branch of the Royal Insurance Company. He had also been a Director of the London Docks Company for many years, before the concern was taken over by the Port of London Authority. Lord Alywne Compton died 16 December 1911. Lord Alwyne had married, in 1886, Mary Evelyn, daughter of Mr Robert Charles de Grey Vyner, of Gautby Hall, Lincolnshire, who survived him, and by whom he had two sons, Edward Robert Francis, at the time of his father's death a Lieutenant in the Bedfordshire Yeomanry, who was born in 1891, and for whom King Edward was sponsor, and Clare George, then a Naval Cadet, who was born in 1894.
Source: DSO recipients (VC and DSO Book) | 4th Battalion, Imperial Yeomanry |