Lord Ronald Charles Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, known as Lord Ronald Gower, was a Scottish Liberal politician, sculptor and writer from the Leveson-Gower family.
From 1867–1874, he was a LiberalMember of Parliament for Sutherland. He made only one speech in the House, even though he held the seat for many years. Reportedly, "it was with some relief that, with the resignation of Gladstone's government at the beginning of 1874, he relinquished" his seat. He was succeeded as MP by his nephew Cromartie, Marquess of Stafford. He was a Trustee of the National Portrait Gallery, and of the Birthplace and Shakespeare Memorial Building at Stratford-on-Avon. In 1889, he travelled to America and donated several of his works to prominent American museums.
Creative work
A sculptor, he also published a number of works on the fine arts. Lord Ronald shared a studio in Sir Joshua Reynolds's old home in Leicester Square with John O'Connor, an Irish landscape painter and theatrical designer. In 1875, he travelled to Paris to begin sculpting in the studio of Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse, one of the founding members of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. His most important sculpture was the statue of Shakespeare and four of his principal characters, erected in Stratford-upon-Avon. He also created a sculpture depicting Marie Antoinette on her way to the scaffold and another of a member of the Old Guard at Waterloo. He also wrote biographies of Marie Antoinette and Joan of Arc and a history of the Tower of London. He furthermore published Reminiscences which was a memoir of his upbringing and life.
Personal life
Gower, who never married, was well known in the homosexual community of the time. Oscar Wilde's story The Portrait of Mr. W. H. has been interpreted as a comment on Gower's social circle, and Gower is generally identified as the model for Lord Henry Wotton in The Picture of Dorian Gray. In 1879, hints of his homosexual liaisons published in the journal Man of the World led Gower to sue the paper, but later in the year the Prince of Wales sent him a letter accusing him of being "a member of an association for unnatural practices", to which Gower wrote an angry reply. John Addington Symonds, who stayed with him once, stated that Gower "saturates one's spirit in Urningthum of the rankest most diabolical kind". His most notable relationship was with the journalist Frank Hird, which lasted to the end of Gower's life. Gower later adopted Hird as his son, leading Wilde to remark on one occasion: "Frank may be seen, but not Hird." They are buried together at St Paul's Parish Church, Rusthall, Kent. Lord Ronald Gower died on 9 March 1916 at his home in Tunbridge Wells, a town in western Kent, England, about south-east of central London.
In 1913, Francis R. Shackleton was charged with defrauding Gower of his fortune. Reportedly, Lord Ronald entrusted Shackleton with $25,000 for him to invest in 1910. Shackleton induced Lord Ronald to purchase 5,000 shares in the City of Montevideo Public Works Corporation, which were essentially worthless shares that only benefited Shackleton. The amount stolen by Shackleton was later claimed to be upwards of $200,000 from Lord Ronald and $30,000 from his "confidential friend"; Frank Hird. It was alleged that Shackleton initially met Ronald in 1905 and Hird in 1907, whom The New York Times referred to as Lord Ronald's adopted son. Due to the loss, he was forced to sell his country house, Hammerfield at Penshurst in Kent, to Arnold Hills.
