View source for George Harcourt Vanden-Bampde-Johnstone, 3rd Baron Derwent

{{Short description|British author, diplomat, and politician}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2022}}
{{infobox person
| honorific_prefix = [[The Right Honourable]]
| name         = The Lord Derwent
| honorific_suffix = [[Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts|FRSA]]
| image        = George Harcourt Johnstone.jpg
| birth_name   = George Harcourt Vanden-Bampde-Johnstone
| birth_date   = {{birth date|1899|10|22|df=yes}}
| birth_place  = [[London]], [[England]]
| death_date   = {{death date and age|1949|01|13|1899|10|22|df=yes}}
| death_place  = [[Paris]], [[France]]
| education    = [[Sandroyd School]]<br>[[Charterhouse School]]
| alma_mater   = [[Merton College, Oxford]]
| party        = [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]]
| parents      =  Hon. Edward Vanden-Bempde-Johnstone<br>
| spouse       = {{marriage|Countess Sabine Czaykowska Iliesco<br>|21 December 1929|18 May 1941|reason=her death}}
| relations    = [[Patrick Vanden-Bempde-Johnstone, 4th Baron Derwent]] (brother)
}}
'''George Harcourt Vanden-Bampde-Johnstone, 3rd Baron Derwent''' [[Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts|FRSA]] (22 October 1899 – 13 January 1949), was a British author, diplomat and [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]] politician.
==Early life==
Derwent—always known to his family and friends as "Peter"<ref>Ancestral Voices, James Lees-Milne, Faber & Faber, 1975, p. 87</ref><ref>Gravesiana: The Journal of the Robert Graves Society, vol. 4, no. 3, Eric J. Webb, p. 462, "An Indecent Proposal"</ref>—was born in [[London]] on 22 October 1899. He was the son of Hon. Edward Henry Vanden-Bempde-Johnstone, and Hon. Evelyn Mary Agar-Ellis.<ref name="obit" />
His father was a younger son of [[Harcourt Vanden-Bempde-Johnstone, 1st Baron Derwent]] and Charlotte Mills (the daughter of [[Sir Charles Mills, 1st Baronet]]). His maternal grandparents were [[Leopold Agar-Ellis, 5th Viscount Clifden]] and the former Hon. Harriet Stonor (a daughter of [[Thomas Stonor, 3rd Baron Camoys]]). In 1929, upon the death of his uncle, [[Francis Vanden-Bempde-Johnstone, 2nd Baron Derwent|Francis]], he inherited the Derwent barony.<ref name="BaronDerwent">{{cite web |title=Derwent, Baron (UK, 1881) |url=http://www.cracroftspeerage.co.uk/derwent1881.htm |website=cracroftspeerage.co.uk |publisher=Heraldic Media Limited |access-date=29 September 2021}}</ref>
Derwent was educated at [[Sandroyd School]] then [[Charterhouse School|Charterhouse]] and [[Merton College, Oxford]] where he won the [[Newdigate Prize]] in 1920.<ref name="obit" /><ref name="MCreg">{{cite book|editor1-last=Levens|editor1-first=R.G.C.|title=Merton College Register 1900-1964|date=1964|publisher=Basil Blackwell|location=Oxford|page=113}}</ref> He succeeded as the third Baron Derwent on the death of his uncle in 1929.<ref name="obit" />
==Career==
On leaving Merton, he joined the diplomatic service and served as an honorary attaché from 1929 at [[Warsaw]], [[Brussels]] and [[Madrid]]. At the start of the [[Second World War]], he was in [[Bern]] before he returned to the United Kingdom in 1942 to serve in the [[Royal Air Force]] until 1944.<ref name="obit" /><ref name="MCreg" />
Derwent was a [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]] party politician, president of the Yorkshire Liberal Federation,<ref name="obit" /> and co-treasurer of the British [[Liberal International]] Council, member of the council of the [[Georgian Group]], of which he was a founder, and a [[Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts]].<ref name="1949NYTObit"/>
===Author and poet===
As an author and poet Derwent wrote under his own name but also the pen name 'George Vanden'.<ref name="obit" /> Two volumes of [[poetry]] were published in 1931 (''Fifty Poems'') and 1943 (''Before Zero Hour'').<ref name="obit" />
==Personal life==
On 21 December 1929, Derwent married Countess Sabine Czaykowska Iliesco, the daughter of General D. Iliesco, [[Chief of the Romanian General Staff]].<ref name="Mosley2003">Mosley, Charles, editor. ''Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes.'' [[Wilmington, Delaware]], U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003. Volume 1, page 1109.</ref> "Asked by the British Who's Who to list his recreations, he put down, 'Fishing, golf, and thinking the twentieth century is just wonderful.'"<ref name="1949NYTObit"/>
Lady Derwent died in [[Bern]] on 18 May 1941. In November 1948, his engagement to Mlle. Carmen Gandarillas, daughter of [[José Antonio Gandarillas|José A. Gandarillas]], the secretary to the Chilean Embassy in London was announced.<ref name="1948Engagement">{{cite news |title=Lord Derwent to Wed Chilean |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1948/11/27/archives/lord-derwent-to-wed-chilean-i.html |access-date=29 September 2021 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=27 November 1948}}</ref> However, Lord Derwent died before the marriage took place.<ref name="1949NYTObit">{{cite news |title=LORD DERWENT, 49, POET AND AUTHOR; Third Baron, Veteran of RAF, Dies in Paris--Had Been in the Consular Service |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1949/01/14/archives/rlord-derwent-49-poet-and-author-ithird-baron-veteran-of-raf-dies.html |access-date=29 September 2021 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=14 January 1949}}</ref> Upon his death in Paris on 13 January 1949, aged 49, on his way back from a health visit to Switzerland, he was succeeded by his younger brother [[Patrick Vanden-Bempde-Johnstone, 4th Baron Derwent|Patrick]] as they had no children.<ref name="obit">{{Cite newspaper The Times|title=  Lord Derwent|department=Obituaries|date=14 January 1949|page=7|issue=51279|column=E}}</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}
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{{succession box | title=[[Baron Derwent]] | before= [[Francis Vanden-Bempde-Johnstone, 2nd Baron Derwent|Francis Vanden-Bempde-Johnstone]] | after=[[Patrick Vanden-Bempde-Johnstone, 4th Baron Derwent|Patrick Vanden-Bempde-Johnstone]] | years=1929–1949 }}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Derwent, George Harcourt Vanden-Bempde-Johnstone, 3rd Baron}}
[[Category:1899 births]]
[[Category:1949 deaths]]
[[Category:Barons Derwent|3]]
[[Category:People educated at Sandroyd School]]
[[Category:People educated at Charterhouse School]]
[[Category:Alumni of Merton College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Writers from London]]
[[Category:Diplomatic peers]]
[[Category:British diplomats]]
[[Category:Liberal Party (UK) hereditary peers]]
[[Category:Royal Air Force personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:English male poets]]
[[Category:20th-century English poets]]
[[Category:20th-century English male writers]]
[[Category:Vanden-Bempde-Johnstone baronets, of Hackness Hall]]