File:Lord Colville's schooner yacht Volage (by Richard Brydges Beechey).jpg

English: Captain Richard Brydges Beechey (1808-1895)

Lord Colville's schooner yacht Volage, flying the colours of the Royal Yacht Squadron, close-hauled and heading down the Channel past the Mewstone Rock

signed and dated R Beechey./1862 (lower left)

oil on canvas

16 x 22 in. (40.7 x 55.8 cm.)

PROVENANCE: Charles John Colville, 1st Viscount Colville of Culross, K.T., G.C.V.O., P.C., and by descent.

Charles John Colville, 1st Viscount (11th Baron) Colville of Culross K.T., G.C.V.O., P.C. (1818-1903), was a British nobleman, Conservative politician and courtier.

A Captain in the Coldstream Guards, he succeeded his uncle to the baronetcy of Colville of Culross in 1849. Elected a Scottish Representative Peer in 1851, he served under Lord Derby as Chief Equerry and Clerk Marshal in 1852 and again from 1858-1859. Under Lord Derby, and subsequently Benjamin Disraeli, he was Master of the Buckhounds (1866-1868). In 1866, he became a member of the Privy Council and later became Lord Chamberlain to the Princess of Wales (1873-1901) and to Queen Alexandra (1901-1903). Colville was also Chairman of the Great Northern Railway Company (1872-1895), a director of the Central London Railway (1900) and President of the Honourable Artillery Company. He was made a Knight of the Thistle in 1874 and created Baron Colville of Culross in 1885. In 1902, he was further honoured when he was made Viscount Colville of Culross.

A keen yachtsman, Lord Colville was the owner of three yachts, the yawl Sultana (1854), the cutter Lavrock (1861) and the schooner yacht Volage (1861), portrayed in the work offered above. A resident of Cowes, he was elected to the Royal Yacht Squadron in 1853. He died at Cowes on 1st July 1903 and is commemorated by a plaque erected in his memory by members of the Royal Yacht Squadron in the Holy Trinity Church, Cowes.