Skip to content
VitrineRoyal Houses of Europe
Sign in

Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne

1855–1944

Born
14 Mar 1855, Chelsea
Country of birth
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, today United Kingdom
Died
7 Nov 1944, Glamis Castle
facts
6
sources
1
images and files
0

Facts and their sources

Tap a fact to see where it comes from.

  • Birth14 Mar 1855, ChelseaProbable1 source
  • Death7 Nov 1944, Glamis CastleProbable1 source
  • Titlemember of the House of LordsConfirmed1 source

A life in time

  1. Born · Chelsea

    Birth, Chelsea

  2. Child born: Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother

    Birth, London

  3. Died · Glamis Castle

    Death, Glamis Castle

What was it like?

The world around Chelsea, 1855: who ruled, who else was alive, how people lived. This is general history, not a record about the family, and every item shows where it comes from.

Claude was born the same year as Houston Stewart Chamberlain, Eleanor Marx, and Ernest Chausson.

Known for

Titles held

  • member of the House of Lords
Born the same year

  • Houston Stewart Chamberlain

    British-German racialist philosopher (1855–1927)

  • Eleanor Marx

    English writer, translator, activist, and daughter of Karl Marx (1855–1898)

  • Ernest Chausson

    French composer (1855–1899)

  • Emile Verhaeren

    Belgian poet (1855-1916)

  • Percival Lowell

    American astronomer (1855-1916)

  • Ferdinand Tönnies

    German sociologist, economist and philosopher (1855–1936)

Fashion

Shirtfronts Hidden Beneath Formal Wear

To maintain respectability when they could not afford an entire formal wardrobe, gentlemen often wore a separate shirtfront or dickey to conceal striped shirts.

Steel Crinolines Reduced Skirt Weight

The steel-framed cage crinoline, introduced in 1856, allowed women to achieve voluminous skirt shapes without the heavy burden of multiple petticoats.

Music

Collecting Coins for Dance Music

At platform dances, musicians sometimes used a portable dancing booth with a box placed out front to collect coins from each dancer. This ensured payment for players when the older custom of paying during long-wise country dances became difficult to manage.

Street Performers and Murder Ballads

Street musicians often survived by singing sensational ballads about local murders, such as the killing of Jael Denny in Essex. A popular sentimental song like Bayley's Isle of Beauty could be performed to earn a quick meal from passersby.

Getting around

Faster and cheaper travel by rail

A journey from London to Liverpool by coach once took twenty-two hours and cost £4 inside, whereas by the mid-nineteenth century, the same journey by train could be completed in just six hours for £2 5s.

Walking as primary travel mode

Walking was the most common way to travel short distances, with people typically covering about 3 miles per hour, though rarely exceeding 20 miles in a single day.

Daily life

Water Collection and Coal Ranges

Many working-class homes lacked running water, requiring families to collect it from a shared street pump and use an outdoor privy. Inside, cooking was done on a coal-burning range, which often included a boiler for heating water.

Winter Bed Warming and Iced Windows

With no central heating, families used warming pans filled with hot coals to heat beds during winter. It was not uncommon for ice to form on the inside of window panes on cold mornings.

Food

Affordable staple foods for families

Onions were a common, affordable staple, often costing about a halfpenny for a bunch of at least a dozen. Watercress was also a popular, cheap working-class staple available for a halfpenny for four bunches.

Economic meat for ordinary families

Meat was expensive, so poorer families relied on economical cuts like sheep's head or offal such as liver, heart, and intestines. A sheep's head could be purchased for about 3d.

Prices and wages

Fluctuating Cost of Bread in London

In 1850, a weekly ration of six four-pound loaves of bread for a family of five cost three shillings and five pence in London. By 1855, the price for the same amount of bread had risen to five shillings and five pence.

Victorian Costs of Everyday Items

A pair of workingman's boots cost one pound, while a ton of coal or three umbrellas were priced at the same amount. For comparison, a pound of soap cost four pence, and a pint of beer cost three pence.

Work

Children Walking Miles at Work

Children called piercers in textile mills could walk 20 to 30 miles a day as part of their work duties.

Common Jobs: Agriculture and Domestic Service

The most common occupations in 1851 were agricultural labourers and domestic servants, the latter being predominantly women.

During their lifetime

  1. 1870

    1870 Education Act mandate school for everyone

    The Education Act of 1870 mandated that school became accessible for everyone in Britain.

  2. 1879

    1879 Tay Bridge collapses killing 75 passengers

    In 1879, the two-mile Tay Bridge collapsed during a storm, killing 75 passengers in Britain's largest engineering disaster.

  3. 1881

    1881 First electric power station opens

    The first electric power station in England opened in Godalming in 1881.

  4. 1897

    1897 Marconi receives patent for radio communications

    Guglielmo Marconi received the first patent for radio communications in 1897.

  5. 1908

    Old Age Pensions Introduced in 1908

    In 1908, Parliament approved means-tested old age pensions of up to five shillings a week for people over 70.

  6. 1918

    Women Won the Right to Vote

    In 1918, a limited number of women were allowed to vote, and by 1927 all women over 21 were granted the right to vote.

Family

Spouses

Children

Ancestors and children

Open the full tree

Four generations back to the right, the children to the left. The number beside a child counts the generations of descendants known after them.