Wemyss, FRANCIS WEMYSS CHARTERIS DOUGLAS

Wemyss, FRANCIS WEMYSS CHARTERIS DOUGLAS, EARL OF, a father of the volunteer movement, was born 4th August 1818 and educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford. He sat in parliament for a division of Gloucestershire in 1841-46, followed Sir Robert Peel on the repeal of the Corn Laws, and sat for Haddingtonshire as a Liberal Conservative from 1847 till in 1883 he succeeded his father as ninth earl. As Lord Elcho he was a Lord of the Treasury in the Aberdeen Ministry from 1852 till 1855. He took a very prominent part in the volunteer movement, frequently presided over the rifle meetings at Wimbledon, and wrote Letters on Military Organisation (1871).