20 Oct 1894 - Aberdeen Free Press (Aberdeen, Scotland)
Page 5, Column 6, Link
Our Bridgewater correspondent says it has transpired that Lord Drumlanrig had been out shooting the whole day with four other gentlemen - Mr. Bevill Fortescue, Mr. Mordaunt, Mr. Gerald Ellis, and Mr. William Elton - accompanied by keepers and beaters. About 4 o'clock, as the party were proceeding through a turnip-field a mile and a half from Quantock Lodge, his lordship was suddenly missed. A shot having been heard in the field behind them, two keepers returned and found Viscount Drumlanrig lying dead in the hedge. One of the barrels of his gun was empty. The inquest will be held this afternoon.
Our Plymouth correspondent telegraphs: - A pathetic interest attached to the tragic death of Viscount Drumlanrig. During the past few days it had become know that a matrimonial alliance had been arranged between the Viscount and Miss Alix Ellis, third daughter of Major-General Ellis, equerry to the Prince of Wales. The first public announcement of the engagement was made in yesterday's "Western Morning News".
The melancholy death of the young Earl of Drumlanrig forms but the latest of an extraordinary series of fatalities that have happened in the Queensberry family. Can any other family in the peerage show such a startling record of calamity as the following -
Henry, Earl of Drumlanrig, killed 1745 by the accidental discharge of his pistol
Charles, Earl of Drumlanrig, was in the Lisbon earthquake of 1755, but escaped
F. W. Bouverie (brother of the present Marquis of Queensberry) killed at the Matterhorn, 14th July 1865
Father of the present Marquis killed 6th August, 1858, by the explosion of his gun.
Francis, Viscount Drumlanrig, son of the present Marquis, shot 18th October, 1894
Shortly after becomine one of Lord Rosebery's secretaries, Viscount Drumlanrig's name was mentioned in connection with two or three constituencies, and it will be remembered that, prior to his elevation, he visited the committees of the party in the Wick Burghs with a view to becoming a candidate at next election. Although he bore the title of Drumlanrig, that portion of the Queensberry estates passed into the Buccleuch family. He was very popular wherever he was known.