George Granville Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 5th Duke of Sutherland, KT, PC (29 August 1888 – 1 February 1963), styled Earl Gower until 1892 and Marquess of Stafford between 1892 and 1913, was a British courtier, patron of the film industry and Conservative party politician from the Leveson-Gower family. He held minor office in the Conservative administration of Bonar Law and Stanley Baldwin in the 1920s and was later Lord Steward of the Household from 1935 to 1936. As a noted patron of the British film industry, the Sutherland Trophy, awarded by the British Film Institute, is named in his honour.
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Early life
Sutherland was born at Cliveden House, Buckinghamshire, in 1888. He was the eldest son of Cromartie Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 4th Duke of Sutherland, by Lady Millicent St Clair-Erskine, daughter of Robert St Clair-Erskine, 4th Earl of Rosslyn.
He was educated at Summer Fields School, Oxford, and Eton College.
Career
Army and naval service
Sutherland initially served in the Lovat Scouts, a part-time yeomanry unit, and held the rank of second lieutenant in 1908. He then served in the regular British Army, transferring to the 2nd Dragoons (Royal Scots Greys) on 10 July 1909. After a year, he moved to part-time service in the Territorial Force, and was appointed a captain in the 5th Battalion of the Seaforth Highlanders on 1 September 1910. From 1914, he was honorary colonel of the same battalion.
He later took a commission in the Royal Naval Reserve, with which he served in the First World War, rising to the rank of commander. In 1914, he commanded HMT Catania and served on the British Military Mission to Belgium from 1914 to 1915. From 1915 to 1917, he commanded the Motor Flotilla sailing between Egypt and the Adriatic Sea. He was awarded the Order of the Crown of Italy.
Political career
Sutherland succeeded his father in the dukedom in 1913 and took his seat in the House of Lords. The same year he was appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Sutherland (succeeding his father), a position he retained until 1944. He was Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1921 and then served in the Conservative governments of Bonar Law and Stanley Baldwin as Under-Secretary of State for Air from 1922 to 1924, as Paymaster General from 1925 to 1928, and as Under-Secretary of State for War from 1928 to 1929. He was appointed a Knight of the Thistle in 1929. In 1936, he was sworn of the Privy Council and appointed Lord Steward of the Household, a post he held until 1937. In the latter year he bore the orb at the coronation of King George VI.
Sutherland was the first Chairman of the British Film Institute, from 1933 to 1936, and remained its patron until his death. From 1958, the BFI awarded the Sutherland Trophy, named after him, to "the maker of the most original and imaginative film introduced at the National Film Theatre during the year".
Personal life
On 11 April 1912, Sutherland married Lady Eileen Gwladys Butler, daughter of Charles Butler, 7th Earl of Lanesborough. During World War I, she was a Red Cross nurse. She died, without surviving issue, on 24 August 1943.
After her death in 1943, he married Clare Josephine (née O'Brian) Dunkerly (1903–1998), the second daughter of Herbert O'Brian of Calcutta, on 1 July 1944. She was previously married to Alexander Blake Shakespear (who she divorced in March 1944), and Col. Vincent Ashforth Blundell Dunkerly.
Sutherland died in 1963, aged 74 and without issue. His titles were divided according to their patents: the Earldom of Sutherland and Lordship of Strathnaver passed to his niece, Elizabeth Sutherland, 24th Countess of Sutherland, only daughter of Lord Alastair Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, while the remainder of his titles passed to the heir male, a distant relative, the Earl of Ellesmere.