Lord Loftus

Basic Information

Lord Loftus was a British nobleman encountered by Marie in Nice during the social seasons. The Loftus family held the title Marquess of Ely (Irish peerage); the young man Marie calls «lord Loftus» is most likely a son of Lord Augustus Loftus (1817–1904), the diplomat (who was not a peer: «Lord Augustus» is the courtesy style of a marquess's younger son); see «Identity uncertain» below.

Connection to Marie's Diary

In her Audiffret entries (carnet 047, October 1875) «Bibi» (popular French for «me») first seems to name Loftus, the man Marie longs to see across the Promenade (047/1875-10-16 footnote: «here apparently Lord Loftus»; read from context, 0.8; the printed index gives Loftus no such alias); from 19 October she gives the name to everyone, including Audiffret ("Bibi-Girofla") and herself.

Identity uncertain

We are not sure who this is. The tag covers the handsome young «lord Loftus» of Nice: with lord and lady Folkner at the theatre and on the Promenade in April 1875 (031/1875-04-14, 04-16: «Loftus est joli mais paraît bête»), then Marie's «bel inconnu» of December 1875, «un demi-dieu» who reminds her of Hamilton and is always with Mlle Leech (050/1875-12-12 to 12-19; 059/1876-05-04: «Loftus est amoureux de Leech… depuis l'été dernier quand je les ai vus tous deux à Wiesbaden»). On 12 December she decides that «l'autre n'était pas lord Loftus, l'autre avait l'air d'un sac» — probably the father, Lord Augustus Loftus (1817–1904), the ex-ambassador at Berlin who was the family's neighbour at no. 55 in October 1875 (see LORD_AUGUSTUS_LOFTUS). The Mon Journal t.6 index files every «Loftus» page under «Loftus (lord Augustus), ex-ambassadeur à Berlin», which cannot be right for a young man. Lord Augustus's sons were Henry John (b. 1849), Augustus Pelham Brooke (b. 1851) and Montagu Egerton (b. 1860) (thepeerage.com p6301; Wikipedia, «Lord Augustus Loftus»); the elder two fit the age, while Marie's memory of him as a child «de sept [?] ans» at Baden (the editor's [?]) fits only Montagu. Sources checked: Mon Journal t.5 and t.6 indexes; Kernberger (2013) glossary («Loftus, Lord: English lord who rents a villa on the Promenade in Nice»); thepeerage.com; Wikipedia. If you can identify him, we would be glad to hear from you.

Related Entries