Albert Kitson, 2nd Baron Airedale

Kitson was the son of James Kitson, an iron and steel manufacturer in Leeds. He was educated at Rugby and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he gained a BA, before following his father into the family business.[1]

On 23 January 1890, at Mill Hill Chapel in Leeds, Kitson married Florence Schunck (1868–1942), the daughter of Edward, Baron von Schunck and his wife Kate Lupton.[2][3]

The Kitsons had seven daughters.

Kitson's father was elevated to the peerage in 1907. Albert Kitson succeeded to the titles of 2nd Baron Airedale of Gledhow and 2nd Baronet Kitson on his father's death on 16 March 1911.[4] As peers of the realm, the Kitsons were invited to the coronation of George V at Westminster Abbey on 22 June 1911.[5]

Kitson was a director of Midland Bank.[5] He was president of the Yorkshire and Leeds Liberal Federations. Prime Minister H. H. Asquith was his guest at Gledhow Hall in November 1913.[6][7]

Kitson was chairman of the finance committee and hon vice-president of the Iron and Steel Institute.[8][9]

Like his father, Lord Airedale was a music-lover and supported the Leeds Triennial Musical Festival; in 1922, Kitson and his sister Hilda, were guarantors of the festival.[10][11]

He owned one the country's finest collections of Leeds pottery.[12]

When the Prime Minister's wife, Margaret Lloyd George, visited Leeds in December 1920 for a reception for women supporters of the Liberal Coalition, she stayed at Gledhow Hall.[13][14]

Gledhow Hall

Kitson inherited Gledhow Hall in 1911. During the First World War, he offered the hall for use as a Voluntary Aid Detachment hospital. The hospital was managed by the Headingley Company of the St John Ambulance Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD). On 22 May 1915, 50 patients were moved to the hall from the 2nd Northern General Hospital at Becketts Park. Kitson's cousin, Edith Cliff, was the Commandant and his daughter Doris and her cousin Olive Middleton were VAD nurses.[15][16] Kitson's family maintained an interest in nursing after the Great War.[17]

The Kitson's London home, 3 Cadogan Square, was damaged by a bomb during the Second World War and they moved to Stansted in Essex.[15]

Albert Kitson died on 11 March 1944 at Stansted and the barony was inherited by his younger brother Roland.[18] His wife had died on 8 July 1942.[19]

• Wilson, Peter (1995). War, State and Society in Württemberg, 1677–1793. Cambridge University Press. p. 131. ISBN 9780521483315.
• Edward Darnton, John (1933). The Von Schunck family : A history of the Hanau branch and connections. J. E. Darnton – Printed in England by Simpson and Co.
• Miller, Jill Ashley (2007). Call Back Yesterday. London: Strathmore Publishing London 2007. ISBN 978-0-9550887-3-5. OCLC 751047782.
• Miller, J.A. (2008). Not The Purser's Daughter. Strathmore Publishing Ltd. pp. 23, 25, 27, 28, 47, 56, 57, 69, 70. ISBN 978-0955088766. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
• Reed, Michael E. (2020). A Regal Yorkshire Family Tree – Blood Relations: The Barons Airedale and the Middleton Family. J.G.K. Nevett. ISBN 9780648862604.