Somerset de Chair
British politician and writer (1911-1995)
Somerset Struben de Chair (22 August 1911 – 5 January 1995) was an English author, politician, wartime soldier, and poet. Mostly themed in topical subjects of recent to classical history, he wrote several novels and a greater mass of non-fiction including in which he drew together as editor three works on Napoleon – spanning French-written memoirs to the French Emperor's novel Souper de Beaucaire.
Early and personal life
De Chair was the younger son of Admiral Sir Dudley de Chair and Enid Struben, daughter of Henry William Struben, of Transvaal, South Africa. The de Chair family were high Huguenots, descending from René de la Chaire, whose grandson, Jean François, Councillor to Charles IX, was created a Marquis in 1600 by Henry IV. This branch of the family prospered through generations of work in the church and interests in farmland and stud farm land. He married firstly, on 8 October 1932, Thelma Grace (1911–1974), daughter of Harold Dennison Arbuthnot, of Merristwood Hall, Worplesdon, Surrey. They had two sons: Rodney Somerset and Peter Dudley. They divorced in 1950.
He then married that year, Mrs (June) Carmen Appleton, daughter of A. G. Bowen, of Brabourne, Kent. They had two sons: Rory and Somerset Carlo, and divorced in 1957. In 1958, de Chair married divorcée Margaret Patricia, daughter of K. E. Field-Hart; they had a daughter, Teresa Loraine Aphrodite (who married Sir Toby Clarke, 6th Baronet).
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Somerset de Chair” as british politician and writer (1911-1995). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as british politician and writer (1911-1995). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7559928. VIAF identifies the subject as 13114903. The Library of Congress control number is n79145680. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1911, 1995, 1600 and 1932.
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.
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Three-step research path
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Somerset de Chair” 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.