The Life and Times of an Upper-Class Waster
Simon Sweetman on Seton Beresford
At first sight Seton Beresford is just another of those gentlemen who drifted about the world of the Edwardian upper classes, playing a little cricket along the way. He seems straight out of PG Wodehouse. His obituary in Wisden reads:
The Hon. Seton Robert de la Poer Horsley Beresford, who was born on July 25,1868, and died at Cap d’Ail on May 28, 1928, aged 59, appeared for Middlesex in two games in 1909. In America he represented New York in Halifax Cup matches and, playing for Manor Field v Columbia Oval in 1919, he put up 228 for the first wicket with EG Hull. During the South African War, in which he was a special correspondent, he was the first man to enter Kimberley and notify Cecil Rhodes of the approach of the Relief Force.
The cricketing references are correct, and he indeed shared a large opening stand with EG Hull against Columbia Oval on Staten Island on 4th July 1919, both retiring, Beresford with 112, Hull 113. Manor Field made 336-3d and bowled Columbia Oval out for 31.
His entry in the list of Cambridge alumni[1] calls him “Seaton (Seton) Robert De La Poer Horsley Beresford.” He was admitted to Magdalene as a pensioner (a student paying his own way) on 16th July 1887. He was the third son of WRJ Beresford, Baron Decies. He was born on 25th July 1868. All of that is true. It markedly says nothing about a degree. It then adds a list of achievements:
Served in the South African War: as war correspondent for Central News.
Lieutenant: 4th Battalion Sherwood Foresters; the first to inform Cecil Rhodes of the force approaching to relieve Kimberley, [South Africa],
Went into business in the United States 1909
Carried through negotiations with Peruvian Government in connection with the Peruvian Irrigation and Colonisation scheme.
Joined: Archer H. Brown, of New York 1914
Organised the despatch of 25,000 horses to France,
Formulated a co-operative shipping plan between USA, and South America,
Managing Director of: two Shipping Associations.
An authority on the industrial relationship between Capital and Labour. A good all-round sportsman; at one time beat the bank at Monte Carlo
Much of this information seems to have come directly from his obituary in The Times. Here we begin to drift into the area of alternative facts—though some of these statements are actually true. He was the third son of Baron Decies, an Irish peer. The barony had been created in 1812 for William Beresford, then Archbishop of Tuam, and is still in existence today. But the third son of an Irish Baron was not likely to be independently wealthy. He went to Eton and to Magdalene, Cambridge (as a pensioner, meaning he had not won a scholarship). He did not obviously play cricket at either place; certainly he was never in the eleven at Eton, nor did he play even in the trials at Cambridge. Indeed, it may be doubtful how much time he spent there at all, as he never graduated.
In 1888 he obtained a commission as a second Lieutenant with the 4th Sherwood Foresters (a reserve battalion). Everything then falls silent until 1899, when he is out in South Africa, apparently as a war correspondent for the Central News Agency, but whether he ever filed a story for them is uncertain. On 15th February he supposedly left the relief column moving towards Kimberley, rode off in advance, and subsequently met with Cecil Rhodes and advised him of the approach of General French and his troops. Later in life this is said to have earned him the soubriquet “the hero of Kimberley”. There is no independent evidence for this self-promoting story.
In October 1899, in Chelsea, he married Delia O’Sullivan, described as a musical comedy actress. The register shows him as “Horsley-Beresford.” Neither of them appear in the 1901 census. She divorced him nine years later on the grounds of adultery and cruelty (the only grounds acceptable at the time), and almost immediately remarried a 21-year old, Sir Charles Philip Huntingdon—which suggests that the divorce was in fact mutually convenient. She was to be married again, this time more respectably, and even has her picture in the National Portrait gallery, in nurse’s uniform in 1915.[2]
Seton returned from South Africa in financial difficulty, having to make a composition with his creditors. His examination casts some light on his lifestyle:
A sitting was held for the public examination of the Hon. Seton Robert de La Poer Horsley Beresford, late of Cadogan Gardens. The accounts showed liabilities £5089, and no available assets. In answer to Mr. Bowyer, assistant receiver, the debtor said that from November, 1899, to July, 1900 he acted as war correspondent in South Africa for a London Press agency. His remuneration was £20 a week, but his expenses exceeded this amount by about £30 a week.
Under the will of his father, Lord Decies, who died in 1893, he was entitled to an annuity of £400 for life, but in about 1895 he sold it for between £6000 and £7000 to his brother, subject to a charge for about £1500, which the purchaser already held to secure an advance made a year previously.
How did you get rid of the balance of about £5000?—In general expenses living.
To what do you attribute your failure?—It is a good deal due to my having contracted typhoid fever in South Africa.
In addition to typhoid, he came back from South Africa suffering from pneumonia, and one or two-other complaints. He was advised to go to Madeira and the South of France to recuperate, and his treatment there cost him £1300.[3]
That would have been a staggering sum for medical treatment, and it seems likely that the casino saw a fair part of that money:
I see there is a sum of £109 due for training and keeping two race-horses in 1897?—Yes.
Examination continued: In 1898 his life was insured for £1000, the policies being handed over to two gentlemen in discharge of betting and gambling debts amounting to £2000 and £1200 respectively. Questioned as to the value of the policies at this time, the debtor said he was unable to state whether the fact that he was about to start for South Africa was considered to make them more valuable. (Laughter.)
In January 1902 his creditors met to consider a proposal for settlement of his debts at seven shillings and sixpence in the pound, in conjunction with his mother withdrawing her claim to money she was owed (thereby increasing the amount available for his remaining creditors). This was agreed by a general vote. It turns out that the settlement was funded by his wife Delia, who paid over £1,500 to the administrator and guaranteed his fee. As a result of this, the matter was concluded shortly afterwards, and as the debts were considered settled, the bankruptcy order was cancelled.[4]
The first CricketArchive reference we have to Seton’s cricket comes from 1906, by which time he was already 38 years old and is found playing regularly for MCC. Quite how a man in his late thirties with no known cricketing background started turning out for MCC is difficult to understand, but he could play a bit. The magazine Cricket provides more: He played a few games for Surrey Club and Ground in 1905, in one game scoring 90 against the Wanderers, but nothing earlier. From 1906, but particularly from 1909 to 1912, he played regularly for MCC (including the Brussels Exhibition Tournament in 1910, when he had just returned from a private tour of Portugal). In 1909 he played in a trial match for Surrey and then his two first-class games for Middlesex, plus a few first-class games for MCC. The suggestion that he went into business in the USA in 1909 is implausible, as he was playing cricket all that summer. But in February 1911 he was the best man as his elder brother Lord Decies was married in New York to Helen Gould (granddaughter of the “robber baron” Jay Gould), in what was described as the society wedding of the year. Seton seems to have thought about trying the same thing. On April 20th, it was reported by the Daily Long Island Farmer under the headline “‘BOBBY’ TO WED MRS ROCHE”:
Frequent visits by Seton Robert Beresford, brother of Lord Decles, it is disclosed, are responsible for the report in social circles that Mrs. Burke Roche, daughter of Frank Work, the millionaire sportsman who died recently and from whom the twice divorced woman inherited more than $1,000,000, is to be wedded to the Englishman. He has been in this country since the marriage of his brother with Vivien Gould. Mrs. Burke Roche is living at the Hotel Gotham, and “Bobby” Beresford has been a frequent visitor to the handsome divorcee.
It didn’t happen, but it would seem that Seton was now mostly living in the USA. In the meantime, it does appear that he had something to do with arranging the purchase of horses in America for the British Army: There are legal papers on file at the Court in Richmond, Virginia, indicating that five years after the event he was still being pursued for unpaid commissions by two agents who sourced the animals he sent to Europe.
In 1915 he nearly struck gold on a transatlantic voyage.[5] From the New York Daily Star on March 8th, 1915:
Miss Catherine Britton, daughter of Alexander Britton, of Washington, and long a favorite in society, may never return from Europe, where she went to act as a nurse for the French. This photograph shows her in a costume she wore at a fancy dress ball shortly before sailing. She left the United States a few weeks ago with Miss Nona McAdoo, daughter of the Secretary of the Treasury. Now she is reported in Washington as being engaged to “Bobby” Beresford, former amateur lightweight champion boxer of the British army and a younger brother of Lord Decies, husband of the former Miss Vivien Gould. Letters received here since the sailing of Miss Brttton and Miss McAdoo to become war nurses, brought the news of the former’s engagement, and while it was not possible to learn from Miss Britton’s parents any details of the affair, it is understood that she has written to Mr. and Mrs. Brttton, asking their consent. Young Beresford,[6] It is said, met Miss Britton for the first time on board ship on the way over. During the voyage Beresford and the Washington society girl were together frequently. “Bobby” Beresford is the heir to his brother’s title, should the latter die without male issue.
The claim to be a boxing champion is a new one, and more unlikely than most. Presumably Miss Britton’s parents were not enthusiastic. But in July it was announced that he was to marry Miss Rosemary Graves-Sawle, daughter of a British Rear-Admiral. We are informed that “Bobby” Beresford
is a veteran of the Boer War, in which he acquired the title of “the hero of Kimberley”.
In November 1917, financial problems surfaced again. A Broadway-based firm of stockbrokers successfully sued him over an unsettled account totalling $26,516 (over $2m at today’s value), run up through trading shares and securities on the New York Stock Exchange between May 1916 and June 1917. The plaintiffs secured an attachment order over any assets he held in the State, but when attempts were made to execute the judgment some mining stock thought to be held on Mr Beresford’s behalf couldn’t be traced. No further legal action was reported to have been taken at the time; it may be that the debt was settled quietly in the background.
Mind you, the report added that
he is a captain in the British Army and for some years held the amateur lightweight boxing championship of Great Britain.
His boxing prowess had grown!
By now he was playing cricket again. He began in July 1917 to play for the Manor Field club of Staten island. He was fairly successful, making a string of 30s and 40s, before his century for Manor Field in July 1919.
In the meantime his wife had been busy, and in 1918 she won the US Ladies’ Figure Skating Championships.
Late in 1919 they left to holiday in Bermuda, and from there seem to have returned to the UK. Seton apparently played cricket in Bermuda, while Rosemary played golf.
Eventually he ran into money trouble again. In May 1925 a bankruptcy order was made against Mr Beresford in the High Court in London, the result of a suit by Clifton Verney Limited, a London-based “confidential” moneylender of the time. By the time the case was heard, he was no longer residing at his previous address in Surrey, and during the follow-up hearing to appoint an administrator to oversee his affairs, the Court was informed he had left the country and was living in France.
He was to remain there, though it seems that Rosemary had declined to join him. Now he became a writer, writing a pamphlet about prohibition, and more successfully, in 1925, Beresford’s Monte Carlo, a guide for visitors. But in 1923 he had published The Future at Monte Carlo, subtitled A method explained whereby the Bank must fail. This is where the notion appeared that he had at some time “broken the bank”. The value of this book is put straightforwardly at UK-21.org, a site that looks at gambling books:
Is there anything in this piece of work that should be taken seriously? In a word no; it’s all complete tosh. The Beresford is just as worthless as all other progression systems based on spurious logic and promising winning results. Not to say that it wouldn’t be entertaining to apply it at the tables, just that if you do you shouldn’t be under any illusions as to what the longer term results will be. As for the author’s claim of using it successfully over the thirty years prior to publication, I think you can take this with a mountain of salt.
Seton Beresford ended his days living in reduced circumstances in Cap d’Ail on the French Riviera, which is just two miles from Monte Carlo and the casino there. He died on 28th May 1928, shortly before his 60th birthday, and is buried in the Anglo-American cemetery on the outskirts of Nice. In 1929 Rosemary remarried Ralph Cobbold (of the Ipswich brewing family).
This article first appeared in The Cricket Statistician for Summer 2021. To join the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians, and subscribe to the journal, please visit our website:
[1] (Burke, P. and B., sub Decies; Magdalene College Mag: The Times 1928:05:30)
[2] https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp139859/delia-dorothy-nee-osullivan-lady-lucas
[3] Barrier Miner, Broken Hill, New South Wales, 23 December 1901
[4] London Gazette, 28th February 1902
[5] New York Daily Star on March 8th 1915.
[6] He was 47.