Norman Leslie, 19th Earl of Rothes

Norman Evelyn Leslie, 19th Earl of Rothes (13 July 1877 – 29 March 1927) was a Scottish soldier and Scottish representative peer.

Background

Norman Leslie was the son of Martin Leslie Leslie (born Martin Leslie Haworth) and Georgina Frances Studdy, daughter of Henry Studdy, of Waddeton Court, Devon. Norman's paternal grandparents were Captain Martin Edward Haworth (d. 1886) and Mary Elizabeth Haworth-Leslie, 18th Countess of Rothes. Norman succeeded his grandmother to the earldom in 1893.

Military career

Lord Rothes was commissioned into the 4th Battalion (1st Devon Militia), Devonshire Regiment in 1895. He was promoted lieutenant in 1897 and resigned his commission in 1899. In 1905 he was appointed captain in the Fifeshire Royal Garrison Artillery (Militia). He resigned his commission in 1909. In 1911 he was appointed lieutenant-colonel commanding the Highland Cyclist Battalion of the Territorial Force, which was badged to the Black Watch.

The Earl of Rothes was elected a Scottish representative peer in 1906, a position he retained until 1923. He fought in the First World War and Leslie House, the ancestral family seat, became a hospital for the injured. His wife, Noëlle, Countess of Rothes, worked ceaselessly during the war, both at Leslie House and in London at the Coulter Hospital, serving as a Red Cross nurse. The earl was promoted to colonel in 1918. He sustained injuries during the war from which he never fully recovered. He sold Leslie House in 1919 and moved his family to England.

Family

Lord Rothes married Lucy Noël Martha Dyer-Edwardes, daughter of Thomas Dyer-Edwardes Jr. and Clementina Georgina Lucy Drummond Villiers, on 19 April 1900 in London. They had two children:

• Malcolm George Dyer-Edwardes Leslie, 20th Earl of Rothes (8 February 1902–1975), married Beryl Violet Dugdale, daughter of Captain James Lionel Dugdale and Maud Violet Woodroffe, on 17 July 1926 and had issue.
• The Honourable John Wayland Leslie (b. 1909–1991).

He died on 29 March 1927, aged 49, at their townhouse in Chelsea, London, and he was succeeded in the earldom by his eldest son, Malcolm.

References

1. Earl of Rothes
2. Noël Leslie, Countess of Rothes
3. Malcolm Leslie, 20th Earl of Rothes
4. Norman Leslie
5. Riverside Park, Glenrothes
6. Charles Cherry
7. Rothes
8. Leslie House
9. Bartolf Leslie
10. Royal warrant of precedence
11. George Learmonth
12. Battle of Ancrum Moor
13. List of Scottish representative peers
14. Lucy Sale-Barker
15. List of grand master masons of the Grand Lodge of Scotland
16. Clan Forsyth
17. David Beaton
18. List of British generals and brigadiers
19. List of American films of 2024
20. Fife