A Primrose Path: The Gilded Life of Lord Rosebery’s favourite Son by Martin Gibson is being republished by Arum Press. The Hon. Neil Primrose, second son of Lord Rosebery and Hannah Rothschild of Mentmore, was Liberal MP for North Cambridgeshire from 1910 until his death in 1917. He was briefly Under Secretary of State at the Foreign Office in 1915; and then Liberal Chief Whip in 1916 alternating parliamentary and active service in the 1/1st Royal Bucks Hussars, in which he was commissioned in 1909.
Primrose was killed in action against the Ottoman Turks at Abu Shusheh, Palestine on 15 November 1917 whilst serving with the regiment. Two days previously, he had taken part in the charge at El Mughar.
The result of extensive research, Martin Gibson’s book tells for the first time the story of this member of the Liberal political elite, including his friendship with a previous officer of the Royal Bucks Hussars, Thomas Agar-Robartes, briefly Liberal MP for Bodmin in 1906 and for Mid-Cornwall (St Austell) from 1908 until his death in 1915. Agar-Robartes transferred from the Royal Bucks Hussars to the Coldstream Guards in January 1915 and was killed in September that year.
Available in hardback @ £20 plus p&p direct from the publishers, www,arumpress.co.uk/books
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