Neville Bulwer-Lytton, 3rd Earl of Lytton
Encyclopedia
Neville Stephen Bulwer-Lytton, 3rd Earl of Lytton, OBE
(6 February 1879–9 February 1951) was a British
military officer and artist.
He was a son of Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton
and grandson of the famous novelists, Edward Bulwer-Lytton
and Rosina Doyle Wheeler
. Neville Lytton was born in India while his father served as viceroy. His siblings included the suffragette
Constance Lytton
, Betty Balfour, Countess of Balfour
and sister in law of the Prime Minister, and Emily Lutyens, wife of Edward Lutyens.
He was educated at Eton College
and at the École des Beaux-Arts
in Paris. During World War I
Neville Lytton served as an officer on the Western Front and saw active duty at both the Somme and Amiens. According to the accounts of a contemporary http://www.greatwardifferent.com/Great_War/Gibbs/Gibbs_02.htm, he was seen as "a gentleman of the old school" and served "with gallantry and distinction". For his service the French Government decorated him with the Chevalier of the Legion of Honour.
Shortly after the end of the war both Britain's Imperial War Museum
, and France's Musee de Guerre acquired examples of his art, some of which had apparently travelled with him on his postings http://www.greatwardifferent.com/Great_War/Gibbs/Gibbs_02.htm. It is possible to see Lytton's fresco
s reflecting his experiences in the war on display in Balcombe
village's Victory Hall http://www.balcombevillage.co.uk/VictoryHall.htm.
From approximately 1900 to 1940 Lytton exhibited his art at such major venues as Alpine Club Gallery, Beaux Arts Gallery, the Dowdeswell Galleries, the Walker Art Gallery
(Liverpool), the New English Art Club
, the Royal Society of Portrait Painters
and at the Royal Academy
, London. Neville Lytton was also elected an Associate of the Societe Nationale des Beaux Arts
, Paris, and exhibited his art there. http://www.artoftheprint.com/artistpages/lytton_neville_sisina.htm In 1911, 1912 and 1913 he was international amateur tennis champion. http://www.xs4all.nl/~androom/index.htm?biography/p024220.htm
He married Judith Blunt
, later Baroness Wentworth
in her own right, in Cairo in 1899. The couple moved to the Blunts' Crabbet Park Stud
in England in 1904, and divorced in 1923. They had three children, Noel Anthony (eventually 4th Earl of Lytton and 17th Baron Wentworth), Lady Anne Lytton and Lady Winifred (Lytton) Tyron. The children inherited an intellectual and artistic heritage from their maternal grandparents, poet Wilfrid Scawen Blunt
and his wife Lady Anne Blunt
, daughter of the Honourable Ada Lovelace
, and granddaughter of Lord Byron
. A second marriage to Alexandra Fortel produced a fourth child, Lady Madeleine Elizabeth Lytton; the Earl and his second family resided in France http://www.internationalbyronsociety.org/pdf_files/descendants.pdf.
Neville Lytton succeeded his brother as the 3rd Earl of Lytton in 1947 and was himself succeeded by his son in 1951.
He competed in the 1908 Summer Olympics
and won the bronze medal in the real tennis
competition.
A profile sketch of the Earl may be viewed at the National Portrait Gallery.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(6 February 1879–9 February 1951) was a British
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
military officer and artist.
He was a son of Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton
Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton
Edward Robert Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton, GCB, GCSI, GCIE, PC was an English statesman and poet...
and grandson of the famous novelists, Edward Bulwer-Lytton
Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton
Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton PC , was an English politician, poet, playwright, and novelist. He was immensely popular with the reading public and wrote a stream of bestselling dime-novels which earned him a considerable fortune...
and Rosina Doyle Wheeler
Rosina Bulwer Lytton
Rosina Bulwer Lytton wrote and published fourteen novels, a volume of essays and a volume of letters. Her husband was Edward Bulwer-Lytton, a novelist and politician...
. Neville Lytton was born in India while his father served as viceroy. His siblings included the suffragette
Suffragette
"Suffragette" is a term coined by the Daily Mail newspaper as a derogatory label for members of the late 19th and early 20th century movement for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom, in particular members of the Women's Social and Political Union...
Constance Lytton
Constance Lytton
Lady Constance Georgina Bulwer-Lytton was an influential British suffragette activist, writer, speaker and campaigner for prison reform, votes for women, and birth control.Although she was raised as member of the privileged, ruling class elite within British Society, she rejected this...
, Betty Balfour, Countess of Balfour
Betty Balfour, Countess of Balfour
---------Lady Elizabeth Edith "Betty" Balfour, née Bulwer-Lytton was a daughter of Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton and Edith Villiers ---------Lady Elizabeth Edith "Betty" Balfour, née Bulwer-Lytton (b. 12 June 1867 - d. 28 March 1942) was a daughter of Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of...
and sister in law of the Prime Minister, and Emily Lutyens, wife of Edward Lutyens.
He was educated at Eton College
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
and at the École des Beaux-Arts
École des Beaux-Arts
École des Beaux-Arts refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The most famous is the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, now located on the left bank in Paris, across the Seine from the Louvre, in the 6th arrondissement. The school has a history spanning more than 350 years,...
in Paris. During World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
Neville Lytton served as an officer on the Western Front and saw active duty at both the Somme and Amiens. According to the accounts of a contemporary http://www.greatwardifferent.com/Great_War/Gibbs/Gibbs_02.htm, he was seen as "a gentleman of the old school" and served "with gallantry and distinction". For his service the French Government decorated him with the Chevalier of the Legion of Honour.
Shortly after the end of the war both Britain's Imperial War Museum
Imperial War Museum
Imperial War Museum is a British national museum organisation with branches at five locations in England, three of which are in London. The museum was founded during the First World War in 1917 and intended as a record of the war effort and sacrifice of Britain and her Empire...
, and France's Musee de Guerre acquired examples of his art, some of which had apparently travelled with him on his postings http://www.greatwardifferent.com/Great_War/Gibbs/Gibbs_02.htm. It is possible to see Lytton's fresco
Fresco
Fresco is any of several related mural painting types, executed on plaster on walls or ceilings. The word fresco comes from the Greek word affresca which derives from the Latin word for "fresh". Frescoes first developed in the ancient world and continued to be popular through the Renaissance...
s reflecting his experiences in the war on display in Balcombe
Balcombe, West Sussex
Balcombe is a village and civil parish in the Mid Sussex district of West Sussex, England. It lies south of London, north of Brighton, and east northeast of the county town of Chichester. Nearby towns include Crawley to the northwest and Haywards Heath to the south southeast...
village's Victory Hall http://www.balcombevillage.co.uk/VictoryHall.htm.
From approximately 1900 to 1940 Lytton exhibited his art at such major venues as Alpine Club Gallery, Beaux Arts Gallery, the Dowdeswell Galleries, the Walker Art Gallery
Walker Art Gallery
The Walker Art Gallery is an art gallery in Liverpool, which houses one of the largest art collections in England, outside of London. It is part of the National Museums Liverpool group, and is promoted as "the National Gallery of the North" because it is not a local or regional gallery but is part...
(Liverpool), the New English Art Club
New English Art Club
The New English Art Club was founded in London in 1885 as an alternate venue to the Royal Academy.-History:Young English artists returning from studying art in Paris mounted the first exhibition of the New English Art Club in April 1886...
, the Royal Society of Portrait Painters
Royal Society of Portrait Painters
The Royal Society of Portrait Painters is a British association of portrait painters which holds an annual exhibition at the Mall Galleries in London...
and at the Royal Academy
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...
, London. Neville Lytton was also elected an Associate of the Societe Nationale des Beaux Arts
Société Nationale des Beaux Arts
Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts was the term under which two groups of French artists united, the first for some exhibitions in the early 1860s, the second since 1890 for annual exhibitions....
, Paris, and exhibited his art there. http://www.artoftheprint.com/artistpages/lytton_neville_sisina.htm In 1911, 1912 and 1913 he was international amateur tennis champion. http://www.xs4all.nl/~androom/index.htm?biography/p024220.htm
He married Judith Blunt
Judith Blunt-Lytton, 16th Baroness Wentworth
Judith Anne Dorothea Blunt-Lytton, 16th Baroness Wentworth also known as Lady Wentworth was a British peeress, Arabian horse breeder and tennis player...
, later Baroness Wentworth
Baron Wentworth
Baron Wentworth is a title in the Peerage of England. It was created in 1529 for Thomas Wentworth, who was also de jure sixth Baron le Despencer of the 1387 creation. The title was created by writ, which means that it descends according to the male-preference cognatic...
in her own right, in Cairo in 1899. The couple moved to the Blunts' Crabbet Park Stud
Crabbet Arabian Stud
The Crabbet Arabian Stud, also known as the Crabbet Park Stud, was a horse breeding farm established on 2 July 1878 when the first Arabian horses brought to England by Wilfrid Scawen Blunt and Lady Anne Blunt arrived at Crabbet Park, their estate in Sussex...
in England in 1904, and divorced in 1923. They had three children, Noel Anthony (eventually 4th Earl of Lytton and 17th Baron Wentworth), Lady Anne Lytton and Lady Winifred (Lytton) Tyron. The children inherited an intellectual and artistic heritage from their maternal grandparents, poet Wilfrid Scawen Blunt
Wilfrid Scawen Blunt
Wilfrid Scawen Blunt was an English poet and writer. He was born at Petworth House in Sussex, and served in the Diplomatic Service from 1858 to 1869. His mother was a Catholic convert and he was educated at Twyford School, Stonyhurst and at St Mary's College, Oscott...
and his wife Lady Anne Blunt
Lady Anne Blunt
Anne Isabella Noel Blunt, née King-Noel, 15th Baroness Wentworth , known for most of her life as Lady Anne Blunt, was co-founder, with her husband the poet Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, of the Crabbet Arabian Stud. The two married on 8 June 1869...
, daughter of the Honourable Ada Lovelace
Ada Lovelace
Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace , born Augusta Ada Byron, was an English writer chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage's early mechanical general-purpose computer, the analytical engine...
, and granddaughter of Lord Byron
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron, later George Gordon Noel, 6th Baron Byron, FRS , commonly known simply as Lord Byron, was a British poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement...
. A second marriage to Alexandra Fortel produced a fourth child, Lady Madeleine Elizabeth Lytton; the Earl and his second family resided in France http://www.internationalbyronsociety.org/pdf_files/descendants.pdf.
Neville Lytton succeeded his brother as the 3rd Earl of Lytton in 1947 and was himself succeeded by his son in 1951.
He competed in the 1908 Summer Olympics
1908 Summer Olympics
The 1908 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the IV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was held in 1908 in London, England, United Kingdom. These games were originally scheduled to be held in Rome. At the time they were the fifth modern Olympic games...
and won the bronze medal in the real tennis
Real tennis
Real tennis – one of several games sometimes called "the sport of kings" – is the original indoor racquet sport from which the modern game of lawn tennis , is descended...
competition.
A profile sketch of the Earl may be viewed at the National Portrait Gallery.
