Lygon, known in the House of Commons by his courtesy title of Viscount Elmley, retained his seat as a Liberal National in the 1935 general election. He succeeded to the peerage as the Earl Beauchamp on his father's death in 1938. At his own death without male issue in 1979, his peerages became extinct.
Personal life
On 16 June 1936, Lygon married Else "Mona" Schiwe (1895–1989), a daughter of Viggo Schiwe, a Danish character actor, and former wife of Peter Christian Blicher Dornonville de la Cour (d. 1924). Beauchamp had no issue of his own by this marriage, but he gained a stepdaughter, Agnete Regitze Dornonville de la Cour (1916–2010).
At one time, Lygon lived in the disused Winterton Lighthouse in Winterton-on-Sea, Norfolk, a village in his parliamentary constituency. After succeeding his father as the Earl Beauchamp in 1938, he and his wife made their home at Madresfield Court, Worcestershire, the ancestral seat of the Earls Beauchamp.
In popular culture
Lygon is sometimes said to be the model for the character of Lord Brideshead ("Bridey"), eldest son of the Marquess of Marchmain, in Evelyn Waugh's novel Brideshead Revisited, perhaps because both were heirs to ancient families and married elderly wives, and both had eccentric fathers. As a result, he was the last Earl Beauchamp. Lygon's father has been cited as the model for Lord Marchmain, the father of "Bridey".[1]
Paula Byrne, "Sex scandal behind Brideshead Revisited", The Times (London), 9 August 2009
Craig, F. W. S. (1983) [1969]. British parliamentary election results 1918-1949 (3rded.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. ISBN0-900178-06-X.