Neil Primrose

Neil James Archibald Primrose was born on 14 December 1882 at Dalmeny House near Edinburgh. He was the second son of Archibald Primrose, the 5th Earl of Rosebery, who served as Prime Minister to Queen Victoria from 1894 to 1895. His mother was Hannah de Rothschild, daughter of Baron Mayer de Rothschild. Neil Primrose’s siblings included Harry Primrose, the 6th Earl of Rosebery, and Lady Sybil Grant.

Primrose received education at Eton College and subsequently attended Oxford University. During his time at Oxford, he played as the No.1 for the Oxford Polo team in the years 1904 and 1905 and was also an enthusiastic steeplechase rider.

In terms of family relationships, Neil Primrose married Lady Victoria Stanley on 7 April 1915. Lady Victoria was the daughter of Edward Stanley, the 17th Earl of Derby. The couple had one daughter, Ruth Alice Hannah Mary Primrose, born on 18 April 1916. Ruth Primrose later married Charles Wood, the 2nd Earl of Halifax, on 25 April 1936. Lady Victoria died in November 1927 in a hunting accident. Lady Victoria's second marriage was to Malcolm Bullock, with whom she had a daughter named Priscilla.

Primrose's political career began with his election to the House of Commons in the January 1910 general election as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wisbech. He was involved in the Anglo-American Peace Centenary Committee starting in 1913.

He held government positions during World War I; in February 1915, he was appointed Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in Herbert Henry Asquith's Liberal administration. When the coalition government was formed in May 1915, Primrose was not included in the new cabinet. Later, in December 1916, under Prime Minister David Lloyd George, he resumed government service as joint-Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury, serving as government chief whip alongside Lord Edmund Talbot until March 1917. In June 1917, he was sworn into the Privy Council.

Primrose also pursued a military career, having been commissioned into the Buckinghamshire Yeomanry (Royal Bucks Hussars) in 1909. He was promoted to the rank of Captain in 1915 and was awarded the Military Cross in June 1916. During the Sinai and Palestine Campaign, he was killed from wounds received in action at Gezer on 15 November 1917. He was leading his squadron of the 1/1st Royal Buckinghamshire Yeomanry against Turkish positions on the Abu Shusheh ridge during the Third Battle of Gaza.

His death was publicly mourned in the House of Commons, where Prime Minister David Lloyd George paid tribute to him on 19 November 1917. Lloyd George described Primrose as a capable individual who chose the path of danger and fell charging at the head of his troops during the war. Former Prime Minister H. H. Asquith also expressed his condolences, recalling Primrose’s promising future and the loss to the nation.

Neil Primrose is interred at the Ramleh Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery in Ramla, Israel. His gravestone bears the inscription: "HE LIVES BY LOVE." He is commemorated on Panel 8 of the Parliamentary War Memorial in Westminster Hall and is among the 22 MPs who died during World War I named there. Additionally, he is memorialized by heraldic shields in the House of Commons Chamber and featured in a 1932 illuminated book of remembrance for the House of Commons. Memorial tablets dedicated to him are located in St Giles' Cathedral, Edinburgh; the Church of St Mary the Virgin, Mentmore, Buckinghamshire; Christ Church, Epsom Common, Surrey; and a stained glass window in St Mary's Church, Knowsley, Merseyside. A plaque was also placed in All Saints Church, Postwick, Norfolk.

External sources include a biography titled "A Primrose Path" by Martin Gibson, published in 2020, and various portraits housed in the National Portrait Gallery, London.