Arthur Granville Soames


Captain Arthur Granville Soames was a member of HM's Coldstream Guards.

Early life

He was born on 12 October 1886 in Wingerworth, Derbyshire, England. He was the only son of Harold Soames, brewer, later of Gray Rigg, Lilliput, Dorset and his wife Katherine Mary, daughter of George Hill. He was the brother of Auriol Davidson née Soames and of Olave St. Clair Baden-Powell, World Chief Guide.

Career

He was commissioned as 2nd Lieutenant into the Coldstream Guards 16 August 1905, Lieutenant 21 September 1907, and served with the regiment during the First World War.
In November, 1926, then living at Ashwell Manor, Tyler's Green, Penn, Buckinghamshire, he was made Sheriff of Buckinghamshire, and again the following year, 1927

Personal life

He was married on 20 Dec 1913 in London to Hope Mary Woodbine, daughter of businessman Charles Woodbyne Parish, of Ennismore Gardens, Kensington. The Parish family were Norfolk landed gentry, and Hope's mother Frances was descended from the 2nd Earl of Glasgow. Together, they had two daughters and a son :-
They divorced in 1934, and Arthur remarried twice:
He died in a London hospital on 6 July 1962 aged 75.
Note: The contents of Sheffield Park were auctioned by Sotheby’s at the house in 1954.
The documents relating to Sheffield House were purchased on 3 March the same year from Sotheby’s in London, for the sterling equivalent of $36.40 by Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, and it can only be assumed that they were extracted from the earlier auction at Sheffield Park with a view to a private sale. Their export to the United States had been in contravention of the Manorial Documents Rules, and in June 2000, the University generously returned the documents to East Sussex, where they were received by the acting Master of the Rolls and the Lord Lieutenant in her capacity of Custos Rotulorum at a ceremony on 24 July.