John Manners, 9th Duke of Rutland

Rutland was the younger son of Henry Manners, 8th Duke of Rutland and his wife Violet. His mother was the daughter of Colonel the Hon. Charles Lindsay, third son of the 25th Earl of Crawford. His elder brother, Robert, Lord Haddon, died in 1894 at the age of 9. His sister Diana Manners was a leading light of the "Corrupt Coterie". Rutland was educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge. He joined the Diplomatic Service as an Honorary Attaché and was posted to the British Embassy in Rome in 1909.^[1]

He was commissioned into the part-time 4th Battalion Leicestershire Regiment (of which his father was honorary colonel) as a second lieutenant in 1910.^[2] He resigned in July 1914 but withdrew his resignation on the outbreak of World War I and was promoted to lieutenant.^[3][4][5] He was seconded as an aide-de-camp in March 1916 to General Edward Montagu-Stuart-Wortley^[6] and reached the rank of captain by the end of the war.^[7]

He was sent to the Western Front in February 1915,^[1] but it was recently revealed that he did not actually see battle, and instead was stationed at the regional headquarters at Goldfish Chateau:

"Despite leading the Remembrance Day parade through Rutland year after year and presiding over the ceremony, his supposed military service was a sham – but not one initially of his own making. His mother, Violet Manners, the 8th Duchess of Rutland, used her considerable persuasive powers and position to conspire with Lord Kitchener and Sir John French, the Commander in Chief of the Western Front, to keep her son from the fighting. Eventually, she rigged a series of medical examinations and dashed any hopes John had of battling in the trenches in Ypres with his regiment – the 4th Battalion Leicestershire (the Tigers)."^[8]

John was however not without guilt. Author Catherine Bailey, who wrote the book The Secret Rooms^[9] about the Duke, stated that Rutland "to begin with, did all he could to fight with the men of the 4th Leicesters. But it was his mother's meddling and constant undermining that finally got him returned home". There is evidence however that after John met his future wife, he became complicit in his mother's conspiracy to have him removed from frontline duties and thus he spent the rest of his life ashamed and his final years locked away trying to destroy any documents that might reveal his disgraceful conduct during the war."^[8]

On 27 January 1916, he married Kathleen Tennant (1895–1989), whom he knew from his mother's circle "The Souls." She was the granddaughter of Sir Charles Tennant, 1st Baronet. They had five children:^[1]

• Lady Ursula Isabel Manners (8 November 1916 – 2 November 2017), married firstly, Lt.-Cmdr. Anthony Freire Marreco. She married secondly, Robert Erland Nicolai d'Abo and had issue.
• Lady Isabel Violet Kathleen Manners (5 January 1918 – 21 December 2008). She married firstly Group Captain Thomas "Loel" Guinness (son of Benjamin Seymour Guinness) and had issue including Lindy Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava. She married secondly Sir Robert Throckmorton, 11th Baronet.
• Charles John Robert Manners, 10th Duke of Rutland (1919–1999)
• Captain Lord John Martin Manners (10 September 1922 – 11 November 2001), married and had a daughter.
• Lord Roger David Manners (23 September 1925 – 1 October 2017), married and had a son and two daughters.

He succeeded to the dukedom in 1925. In 1927, he "realized his boyhood dream" by establishing residence at the historic Haddon Hall, which he painstakingly restored.^[1]

He was patron of the then Loughborough College, and Rutland Hall on the university campus is named in his honour.^[10]

He died of pneumonia at Belvoir Castle in 1940, eight days after being taken ill.^[1]