Vivian Francis Bulkeley-Johnson

Vivian Francis Bulkeley-Johnson (15 January 1891 – 14 February 1968)[1] was the aide-de-camp to Victor Cavendish, 9th Duke of Devonshire, the Governor General of Canada from 1916 to 1918. He served in the offices of the Imperial War Cabinet in World War I from 1918 to 1919, and in the Air Ministry from 1919 to 1922.[2]

Vivian Francis Bulkeley-Johnson
Vivian Bulkeley-Johnson in 1917
Born15 January 1891
Belgravia, England, U.K.
Died14 February 1968(1968-02-14) (aged 76)
England, U.K.
EducationEton College
Balliol College, Oxford
Spouses
Siriol Penelope Diana Katherine Williams-Bulkeley
​
​
(m. 1924; div. 1947)​
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1949)​
    Parent(s)Francis Head Bulkeley-Johnson
    Helen Percy Stoughton

    Early life

    Bulkeley-Johnson, who was affectionately known as BJ,[3] was born on 15 January 1891 in Belgravia, England. He was the only son born to Francis Head Bulkeley-Johnson (1864–1933), an English barrister, and Helen Percy Stoughton.[4][5]

    His maternal grandparents were Charles William Stoughton of Ballynoe in County Kerry, Ireland, and Percy Georgina Laura (née Gosset) Stoughton.[6] His great-grandfather, Thomas Anthony Stoughton of Owlpen Park, was the High Sheriff of Gloucestershire.[6][7]

    Bulkeley-Johnson was educated at Eton College and Balliol College, Oxford.[8][9]

    Career

    In 1912, he gazetted to the 2nd Battalion Rifle Brigade and then served in India from April 1914 to September 1914, followed by service on the Western Front in France during World War I, from November 1914 until March 1915, where he was wounded at Neuve-Chapelle on 10 March 1915,[9] during the Battle of Neuve Chapelle in which it was captured, not for the first time, by the IV and I Indian Corps.[10] Bulkeley-Johnson was gazetted Captain on 5 October 1915.[9]

    Following his recovery, he served at General Headquarters for the Home Forces from April to November 1916.[9] From 1916 to 1918, he was one of three aide-de-camps who came from England. Bulkeley-Johnson, then 25, was aide-de-camp to Victor Cavendish, 9th Duke of Devonshire, the Governor General of Canada. He served in the offices of the Imperial War Cabinet for World War I from 1918 to 1919, and in the Air Ministry from 1919 to 1922.[2]

    From 1922 until 1930, he worked as the London agent for cotton merchants,[3] and from 1930 until 1952, Bulkeley-Johnson, then a "distinguished-looking gentlemen with a disabled leg",[11] was a banker in London[12] where he looked after the charitable activities of the Rothschild Bank.[13]

    Personal life

    On 11 June 1924, he married Siriol Penelope Diana Katherine Williams-Bulkeley, daughter of Sir Richard Williams-Bulkeley, 12th Baronet, who served as the Lord Lieutenant of Anglesey from 1896 until 1942, and Lady Magdalen Yorke.[14] Siriol's maternal grandfather was Charles Yorke, 5th Earl of Hardwicke and her uncle was Albert Yorke, 6th Earl of Hardwicke, the bachelor Under-Secretary of State for India from 1900 to 1902. They divorced in 1947.[4]

    On 13 October 1949, he married the divorced American heiress, Cornelia Stuyvesant Vanderbilt in a brief ceremony at the Kensington registry office in London,[15] and remained married to her until his death.[2] Cornelia was the daughter of George Washington Vanderbilt II and Edith Stuyvesant Dresser and the mother of George Henry Vanderbilt Cecil and William Amherst Vanderbilt Cecil from her previous marriage to John Francis Amherst Cecil,[16] the first secretary of the British Embassy in Washington,[12] who was the son of Lord William Cecil and Mary Cecil, Baroness Amherst of Hackney.[17]

    From his second marriage, he became incredibly wealthy and lived in a four-story brick home in Kensington,[18] and on a 240 acre farm in the village of Churchill northwest of Oxford, known as the Mount, where he "took an interest in inland waterways, running a company that operated boats on the Oxford and other canals".[3] Bulkeley-Johnson died on 14 February 1968 in England.

    Legacy

    Bulkeley-Johnson was a collector of Chinese art which included a "series of ceramic wares ranging from the Neolithic period to the Ch'ing dynasty".[19] Upon his death, he donated his collection to the Mount Trust Collection of Chinese Art at the Victoria and Albert Museum.[20][21]

    References
    1. Westminster, London, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1919
    2. "Vivian Bulkeley-Johnson". National Archives of Canada. Retrieved 9 March 2015.
    3. Phillips, Dorothy Anne (2017). Victor and Evie: British Aristocrats in Wartime Rideau Hall. McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. p. 40. ISBN 9780773552227. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
    4. "Captain Vivian Bulkeley-Johnson". The Peerage. Retrieved 9 March 2015.
    5. Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage. Burke's Peerage Limited. 1938. p. 428. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
    6. Burke, Bernard (1899). A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Ireland. Harrison & sons. p. 428. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
    7. "No. 23945". The London Gazette. 6 February 1873. p. 513.
    8. College, Eton; (Hon.), Edward Lyttelton (1933). The Old Public School Boys' Who's Who Series: Eton. St. James's Press. p. 444. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
    9. Who's Who and Why 1917-18. Toronto: International Press, Limited. 1918. p. 39. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
    10. Edmonds, J. E.; Wynne, G. C. (1995) [1927]. Military Operations France and Belgium, 1915: Winter 1914–15 Battle of Neuve Chapelle: Battles of Ypres. History of the Great War Based on Official Documents by Direction of the Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial Defence. Vol. I (Imperial War Museum and Battery Press repr. ed.). London: Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-89839-218-0.
    11. Fabrizius, Peter (1988). One and One Make Three: Story of a Friendship. Bnai Brith Books. p. 56. ISBN 9780917883033. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
    12. "Cornelia Vanderbilt Weds London Banker". Portland Press Herald. 14 October 1949. p. 25. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
    13. Country Life | Vol 183. Country Life, Limited. 1989. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
    14. Debrett's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage, and Companionage. Kelly's Directories. 1973. p. 1378. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
    15. Milling, Marla Hardee (2017). Legends, Secrets and Mysteries of Asheville. Arcadia Publishing. p. 135. ISBN 9781467135917. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
    16. "JOHN CECIL, EX-AIDE OF BRITISH EMBASSY" (PDF). The New York Times. 23 October 1954. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
    17. "MISS VANDERBILT TO WED APRIL 29; Date of Wedding to the Hon. John F. A. Cecil Is Formally Announced. CEREMONY AT BILTMORE They Will Then Make Their Permanent Home on Her North Carolina Estate". The New York Times. 16 March 1924. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
    18. Kiernan, Denise (2017). The Last Castle: The Epic Story of Love, Loss, and American Royalty in the Nation's Largest Home. Simon and Schuster. p. 290. ISBN 9781476794044. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
    19. Studio International | Vol 179, Issue 919. Studio Trust. 1970. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
    20. Oriental Ceramic Society (1970). Transactions. Oriental Ceramic Society. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
    21. Museum, Victoria and Albert (1970). The Mount Trust Collection of Chinese Art. Victoria and Albert Museum. ISBN 9780901486349. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
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