William Keppel, 7th Earl of Albemarle

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William Coutts Keppel, 7th Earl of Albemarle KCMG PC (April 15, 1832 – August 28, 1894), was a British soldier and politician.

Educated at Eton, in 1843 he became an Ensign and Lieutenant 43rd Foot, from 1848 till 1853 a Lieutenant Scots Guards, becoming Aide-de-Camp to Lord Frederick FitzClarence in India. From 1851 till 1891 he was styled Viscount Bury, then succeeded his father to become 7th Earl of Albemarle.

From 1854 till 1856 he was Superintendent of Indian Affairs in Canada. On 15 November 1855 at Dundurn, in Canada, he married Sophia Mary Macnab, daughter of Allan Napier MacNab, a Prime Minister of Canada, and they became the parents of ten children:

• Lt.-Col. Arnold Keppel, 8th Earl of Albemarle (1858–1942)
• Gertrude Mary Keppel (9 November 1859 – 7 April 1860)
• Lady Theodora Keppel (c. 1861 – 30 October 1945), married Col. Leslie Davidson and had issue
• Hon. Derek Keppel (1863–1944)
• Lady Hilda Mary Keppel (29 August 1864 – 7 October 1955), unmarried
• Lt.-Col. Hon. George Keppel (14 October 1865 – 22 November 1947), husband of the royal mistress Alice Keppel
• Lady Leopoldina Olivia Keppel (14 November 1866 – 9 August 1948), a nun
• Lady Susan Mary Keppel (5 May 1868 – 26 June 1953), married Sir Walter Townley in 1896
• Lady Mary Stuart Keppel (15 May 1869 – 21 September 1906), married Sir Harold Tagart in 1900
• Lady Florence Cecilia Keppel (24 February 1871 – 30 June 1963), married William Boyle, 12th Earl of Cork in 1902.

From 1857 till 1859 he was Member of Parliament (MP) for Norwich, from 1860 till 1865 for Wick Burghs and, from 1868 till 1874 for Berwick-upon-Tweed.

He was appointed Privy Counsellor in 1859. From 1859 till 1866 he was Treasurer of the Queen's Household and, on September 6, 1876, was summoned to the House of Lords in his father's Barony of Ashford. He was Under-Secretary of State for War from 1878 till 1880 as well as in 1885 and 1886. On Easter Sunday, 13 April 1879, he was received into the Church of Rome. In 1881 he became a Volunteer Aide-de-Camp to the Queen.

He wrote a history of the American colonization called Exodus of the Western Nations (1865) and A Report on the Condition of the Indians of British North America.

He died aged sixty-two, of paralysis, and was buried at Quidenham.

Keppel's son Arnold was the husband of Alice Keppel, the most famous mistress of King Edward VII. He is also the great-great-grandfather of Camilla, The Duchess of Cornwall and the modern day television celebrity Judith Keppel.

[edit] Reference

• thePeerage.com

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Edward Warner Sir Samuel Bignold	Member of Parliament for Norwich with Henry William Schneider 1857–1859	Succeeded by Edward Warner Sir William Russell
Preceded by Samuel Laing	Member of Parliament for Wick Burghs 1860–1865	Succeeded by Samuel Laing
Preceded by Dudley Marjoribanks Alexander Mitchell	Member of Parliament for Berwick-upon-Tweed with John Stapleton 1868–1874	Succeeded by Dudley Marjoribanks David Milne Home
Political offices
Preceded by Lord Claud Hamilton	Treasurer of the Household 1859–1866	Succeeded by Lord Otho FitzGerald
Peerage of England
Preceded by George Keppel	Earl of Albemarle 1891–1894	Succeeded by Arnold Keppel