Lord Alan Spencer-Churchill

Lord Alan Spencer-Churchill DL, (b. 25 July 1825 in Garboldisham Norfolk – d. in London on 19 April 1873) was an officer in the British Army, Deputy Lieutenant of Oxfordshire, a lieutenant in the Oxfordshire Yeomanry and a business man. He was a great uncle of Sir Winston Churchill.

Alan Spencer-Churchill was the third son of the thrice married George Spencer-Churchill, 6th Duke of Marlborough and his first wife, Lady Jane Stewart, daughter of George Stewart, 8th Earl of Galloway. After Eton he served as an officer in the cavalry regiment of the 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars, becoming a lieutenant by purchase in 1844. In 1843 Lord Alan was Best man at the wedding of his eldest brother, John, then 7th Marquess of Blandford, to Lady Frances Vane, the future grandparents of Prime minister, Winston Churchill.

While stationed at York with his regiment in 1846, he met and married Rosalind Dowker (sometimes referred to as 'Rosamond'), daughter of Thomas Dowker of Huntington, York. They had no surviving children.

Unlike his two elder brothers, upon leaving the Army, Lord Alan eschewed a political career and chose instead, unusually for people of his class, to go into business. His association with Peter Rolt (1798-1882), merchant and Conservative MP for Greenwich led to his involvement in international trade and to a number of company directorships, in the then burgeoning sectors of Shipping and Tourism. Among his interests was the importation of beef from Argentina as well as shipbuilding at the Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company, the establishment of freight transport networks, for example, through the British and South American Steam Navigation Company. He entered tourism through the hotel venture that was the new Imperial Hotel at Torquay.

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