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Charles Howard-Bury

British soldier, explorer, botanist and Conservative politician (1883-1963)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 31, 2026
Entity authorityQ2959381 ↗
Source-derived summary

Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Kenneth Howard-Bury DSO, DL, JP (15 August 1881 – 20 September 1963) was a British soldier, explorer, botanist and Conservative politician.

Background and education

A member of the Howard family, he was born at Charleville Castle, King's County, Ireland, the only son of Captain Kenneth Howard-Bury (1846–1885), son of the Honourable James Howard. His mother was Lady Emily Alfreda Julia, daughter of Charles Bury, 3rd Earl of Charleville. His father had assumed the additional surname of Bury in 1881 after his wife succeeded to the Charleville estates. In his own right he succeeded to the estates of Charles Brinsley Marlay including Belvedere House and Bloomfield House. He was educated at Eton and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.

Career until 1921

Howard-Bury was always interested in climbing as a youth, which led him to take up the larger routes in Austrian Alps. He joined the King's Royal Rifle Corps in 1904 and was posted to India, where he went travelling and big game-hunting. In 1905, he secretly entered Tibet without permission and was rebuked by Lord Curzon. His early travel diaries date from 1906 and show his powers of observation, encyclopaedic knowledge of natural history, and linguistic ability.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Charles Howard-Bury” as british soldier, explorer, botanist and Conservative politician (1883-1963). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1881, 1963, 1846, 1885—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—1881-08-15, 1883-08-15—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. The account is most persuasive where Charles, Howard-Bury and British can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as british soldier, explorer, botanist and Conservative politician (1883-1963). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2959381. VIAF identifies the subject as 61401545. The Library of Congress control number is nr91028430. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1881, 1963, 1846 and 1885.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Charles Howard-Bury”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Charles Howard-Bury primary sources, Charles Howard-Bury archive and Charles research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Charles Howard-Bury”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Charles Howard-Bury” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.