Gough-Calthorpe, Augustus Cholmondeley, sixth Baron Calthorpe 1829-1910, agriculturist, born at Elvetham, Hampshire, on 8 Nov. 1829, was third son in the family of four sons and six daughters of Frederick Gough Calthorpe, fourth Baron Calthorpe (1790-1868), by his wife Lady Charlotte Sophia, eldest daughter of Henry Charles Somerset, sixth duke of Beaufort. The family descended from Sir Henry Gough (d. 1774), first baronet, of Edgbaston, whose heir Henry, by his second wife, Barbara, heiress of Reynolds Calthorpe of Elvetham, succeeded in 1788 to the Elvetham estates, and taking the surname of Calthorpe, was created Baron Calthorpe on 15 June 1796 [see Calthorpe, Sir Henry]. Augustus was educated at Harrow from 1845 to 1847 and matriculated at Merton College, Oxford, on 23 Feb. 1848, graduating Bachelor of Arts in 1851, and proceeding M.A. in 1855. In adult life he devoted himself to sport, agriculture, and the duties of a county magistrate. He lived on family property at Perry Hall, Staffordshire, serving as high sheriff of that county in 1881. At the general election of 1880 he stood with Major Fred Burnaby [qv.] as conservative candidate for the undivided borough of Birmingham, near which a part of the family estates lay, but was defeated, P. H. Muntz, John Bright, and Mr. Joseph Chamberlain being returned. On the death on 26 June 1893 of his eldest brother, Frederick, fifth baron (1826-1893), who was unmarried (his second brother, George, had died unmarried in 1843), he succeeded to the peerage as sixth baron. On the family estates at Elvetham he started in 1900 what has become a noted herd of shorthorn cattle, and his Southdown sheep and Berkshire pigs were also famous. He showed generosity in devoting to public purposes much of his property about Birmingham. He made over to the corporation in 1894 the freehold of Calthorpe Park near that city, which his father had created in 1857, and took much interest in the development of the new Birmingham University. In 1900 he and his only son, Walter (1873-1906), presented 27— acres of land, valued at 20,000l., for the site of the university buildings, and in 1907 he gave another site, immediately adjacent, of nearly 20 acres, of the estimated value of 15,000l., for a private recreation ground for the students. He died after a short illness at his London residence at Grosvenor Square on 22 July 1910, and was buried at Elvetham, after cremation at Golder's Green. He was succeeded in the title by his next brother, Lieut.-general Sir Somerset John Gough-Calthorpe (b. 23 Jan. 1831). He married on 22 July 1869 Maud Augusta Louisa, youngest daughter of the Hon. Octavius Duncombe, seventh son of Charles Duncombe, first Lord Feversham, by whom he had one son, Walter (who predeceased him), and four daughters.

Sources:
     The Times, 23 and 28 July 1910
     Harrow School Reg.
     Foster's Alumni Oxon.
     Burke's Peerage.

Contributor: E. C. [Ernest Clarke]

Published: 1912