{"id":18103,"date":"2025-08-11T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/?p=18103"},"modified":"2025-08-11T14:35:50","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T13:35:50","slug":"lord-ronald-gower-life-of-a-queer-mp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/2025\/08\/11\/lord-ronald-gower-life-of-a-queer-mp\/","title":{"rendered":"Lord Ronald Gower (1845-1916): the life of a queer MP at the time of the Second Reform Act"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dr Martin Spychal introduces his series of articles<\/a> on Lord Ronald Gower (1845-1916), who was elected as MP for Sutherland in 1867.<\/em> This is the first of five articles originally published on the Victorian Commons website between February 2020 and May 2021.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/a>
Lord Ronald Charles Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, Napoleon Sarony (c. 1884), \u00a9 National Portrait Gallery, London<\/a>, CC BY-NC-ND 3.0<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Born into \u2018the inner circle of English aristocratic life\u2019, Lord Ronald Gower <\/a>(1845-1916) is best known as the likely inspiration for the hedonistic aristocrat, Lord Henry Wotton, in Oscar Wilde\u2019s The Picture of Dorian Gray <\/em>(1890), and as the sculptor of the Shakespeare Memorial in Stratford-upon-Avon. He is a prominent figure in Britain\u2019s nineteenth-century LGBTQ+ history on account of his connection with Wilde (who spoke at the unveiling of the Shakespeare Memorial), his own output as an artist and author, and his centrality to queer metropolitan society from the 1870s.*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Joseph Bristow has suggested, despite Gower\u2019s ‘sexual interest in other men’ becoming an increasingly open secret in high society by the end of the nineteenth century, his wealth and social status allowed him to avoid the criminal sentencing that destroyed the lives of less connected queer men (both before and after the 1885 Labouch\u00e8re Amendment<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a>

Prince Hal, with Shakespeare in the background, in Gower’s Shakespeare Memorial (1888), now known as the Gower Monument, Bancroft Gardens, Stratford-upon-Avon \u00a9<\/strong> Martin Spychal<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This relative freedom allowed him to play an influential role in shaping, and to an extent asserting, queer identities during the late nineteenth century. Whitney Davis has astutely observed that in terms of his artistic practice, by the late 1880s Gower \u2018had begun self-consciously to enact the possibility \u2013 the aesthetic possibility \u2013 of an essentially homosexual life-historical identity\u2019. And John Potvin has suggested that Gower\u2019s remarkable bric-a-brac \u2018treasure house\u2019 at Windsor Lodge, which became a meeting point for a generation of young aesthetes from the 1870s, reflected Gower\u2019s \u2018unique sense of queer time and place\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1867, at the age of just 21, Gower was returned for the Scottish county of Sutherland. He represented the constituency until 1874. For most of those years he kept a detailed diary, parts of which found their way into his popular two volume autobiographical memoirs, My Reminiscences<\/em>, published in 1883. After working on the manuscript of Gower\u2019s diary for the History of Parliament\u2019s forthcoming Commons 1832-1868<\/em> volumes it has become clear to me that Gower undertook a considerable amount of self-censorship in his memoirs. More importantly it is evident that the document warrants specific attention beyond the scope of the traditional History of Parliament biography format.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"A<\/a>
Group photo at Kensington High Street Station, July 1868, \u00a9 National Portrait Gallery, London<\/a>, CC BY-NC-ND 3.0<\/a>. Gower (third from the left) on the Metropolitan Railway at Kensington High Street with fellow dignitaries<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

As well as being a significant source for understanding the machinations of parliamentary politics at the time of the second Reform Act, Gower\u2019s unpublished diary offers an amazing opportunity to understand the life of a young, aristocratic queer man as he navigated his way through the homosocial world of Westminster politics, and established himself in London society. It also offers an opportunity to examine Gower\u2019s connection to London\u2019s queer culture during the 1860s, discussed in Charles Upchurch\u2019s excellent Before Wilde: Sex between Men in Britain\u2019s Age of Reform <\/em>(2009).<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"A<\/a>
The first page of Gower’s diary from 1867, SRO D6578\/15\/21<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In this series of articles I\u2019ll use Gower\u2019s diary to consider various aspects of his life in London as an MP during 1867 and 1868, from his reputed nickname as \u2018the beautiful boy\u2019 of the House of Commons, to his election at the 1867 by-election, and his experiences as an MP at Westminster. Moving outside Parliament, I\u2019ll consider his busy social life (featuring aristocratic balls, West End nightlife and an intriguing predilection for spectating at major London fires), an apparent summer romance with the son of the commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, his close friendship with his cousin and MP for Argyllshire, the Marquess of Lorne, and his developing connections with London\u2019s art world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MS<\/p>\n\n\n\n

* Following the theories pioneered by leading queer theorists since the 1980s (including Judith Butler, Michel Foucault, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Sara Ahmed, Lauren Berlant and Michael Warner) I use the term \u2018queer\u2019 because, to borrow from Warner, it \u2018defin[es] itself against the normal rather than the heterosexual\u2019. Queer allows for a much wider definition of sexuality because it avoids the binary of homosexuality vs heterosexuality.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Read the rest of the series on Gower via these links:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part two<\/strong>: ‘Lord Ronald Gower (1845-1916): the social life of a queer MP at the time of the Second Reform Act’<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part three<\/strong>: ‘The \u2018beautiful boy\u2019 of the Commons: Lord Ronald Gower (1845-1916) and sexual identity in Parliament at the time of the Second Reform Act’<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part four<\/strong>: ‘A Highland canvass in a \u2018pocket county\u2019: Ronald Gower (1845-1916) and the 1867 Sutherland by-election<\/a>‘<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part five<\/strong>: ‘\u2018Covent Garden was lit up by a lucid light\u2019: an MP\u2019s account of the fire at Her Majesty\u2019s Theatre, 6 December 1867<\/a>‘<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further Reading<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

S. Ahmed, Queer Phenomenology: Orientation, Objects, Others <\/em>(2006)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

S. Avery, K. M. Graham, Sex, Time and Place: Queer Histories of London, c.1850 to the Present<\/em> (2018)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

J. Bristow, \u2018Oscar Wilde, Ronald Gower, and the Shakespeare Monument\u2019, \u00c9tudes anglaises<\/em> (2016)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

M. Cook, London and the Culture of Homosexuality 1885-1914 <\/em>(2003)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

H. G. Cocks, Nameless Offences: Homosexual Desire in the Nineteenth Century <\/em>(2003)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

W. Davis, Queer Beauty: Sexuality and Aesthetics from Winckelmann to Freud and Beyond<\/em> (2010)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

W. Davis, \u2018Lord Ronald Gower and \u2018the offending Adam\u2019, in D. Getsy (ed.), Sculpture and the Pursuit of a Modern Ideal in Britain<\/em> (2004)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

E. Kosofsky Sedgwick, Epistemology of the Closet<\/em> (1990)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

J. Potvin, Bachelors of a Different Sort <\/em>(2014)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

C. Upchurch, Before Wilde: Sex between Men in Britain\u2019s Age of Reform <\/em>(2009)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

C. Upchurch, “Beyond the Law”: The Politics of Ending the Death Penalty for Sodomy in Britain<\/em> (2021)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

P. Ward-Jackson, \u2018Lord Ronald Gower, Gustave Dor\u00e9 and the Genesis of the Shakespeare Memorial at Stratford-on-Avon\u2019, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes<\/em> (1987)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

P. Ward-Jackson, \u2018Gower, Lord Ronald Charles Sutherland-Leveson- (1845-1916)\u2019, Oxf. DNB<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

M. Warner, Fear of a Queer Planet: Queer Politics and Social Theory<\/em> (1993)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

This is an updated version of an article originally published on the Victorian Commons website<\/a> on 19 February 2020, written by Dr Martin Spychal<\/a>.<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr Martin Spychal introduces his series of articles on Lord Ronald Gower (1845-1916), who was elected as MP for Sutherland in 1867. This is the first of five articles originally published on the Victorian Commons website between February 2020 and May 2021. Born into \u2018the inner circle of English aristocratic life\u2019, Lord Ronald Gower (1845-1916) is best known as the likely inspiration for the hedonistic … Continue reading Lord Ronald Gower (1845-1916): the life of a queer MP at the time of the Second Reform Act<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99266922,"featured_media":18263,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[4706867,3737,11502563,774275561,124494893],"tags":[6920320,35890,8742801,314707,774276175,2695837],"class_list":["post-18103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-19th-century-history","category-material-culture","category-lgbtq-history","category-victorian","category-victorian-commons","tag-dorian-grey","tag-featured","tag-lord-ronald-gower","tag-queer-history","tag-ronald-gower-series","tag-the-picture-of-dorian-grey"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historyofparliament.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Lord-Ronald-Charles-Sutherland-Leveson-Gower.jpg?fit=546%2C284&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2QYNW-4HZ","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6760,"url":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/2021\/02\/24\/lord-ronald-gower\/","url_meta":{"origin":18103,"position":0},"title":"New Podcast for LGBT+ History Month: Lord Ronald Gower (1845-1916)","author":"History of Parliament","date":"February 24, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Based on his recent blog series on The Victorian Commons, this LGBT+ History Month Dr Martin Spychal sat down (virtually) with our public engagement team to discuss his research on the queer MP Lord Ronald Gower. 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Sarony, Lord Ronald\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Victorian Commons"","block_context":{"text":"Victorian Commons","link":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/category\/sections\/victorian-commons\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historyofparliament.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/gower-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":18113,"url":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/2025\/08\/11\/ronald-gower-social-life-of-a-queer-mp\/","url_meta":{"origin":18103,"position":1},"title":"Lord Ronald Gower (1845-1916): the social life of a queer MP at the time of the Second Reform Act","author":"Martin Spychal","date":"August 11, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"In the second article in his series on Lord Ronald Gower (1845-1916), Dr Martin Spychal explores Gower\u2019s London social life during his first year in Parliament, including a brief summer romance with the son of the commissioner of the Metropolitan Police. 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In May 1868 the twenty-two-year-old MP for Sutherlandshire, Ronald Gower (1845-1916),\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Victorian Commons"","block_context":{"text":"Victorian Commons","link":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/category\/sections\/victorian-commons\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historyofparliament.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/SM-Lord-Ronald-Sutherland-Gower-A-Memorial-Tribute-1916.png?fit=977%2C493&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historyofparliament.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/SM-Lord-Ronald-Sutherland-Gower-A-Memorial-Tribute-1916.png?fit=977%2C493&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historyofparliament.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/SM-Lord-Ronald-Sutherland-Gower-A-Memorial-Tribute-1916.png?fit=977%2C493&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historyofparliament.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/SM-Lord-Ronald-Sutherland-Gower-A-Memorial-Tribute-1916.png?fit=977%2C493&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6151,"url":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/2020\/11\/30\/ronald-gower-1867-sutherland-by-election\/","url_meta":{"origin":18103,"position":3},"title":"A Highland canvass in a ‘pocket county’: Ronald Gower (1845-1916) and the 1867 Sutherland by-election","author":"Martin Spychal","date":"November 30, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Continuing our series on Scotland and his series on Lord Ronald Gower (1845-1916), Dr Martin Spychal, research fellow for the House of Commons 1832-1868 project, uses Gower\u2019s diaries to provide some rare insights into mid-Victorian electioneering in the \u2018pocket county\u2019 of Sutherland. 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