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Removing from Category:Burials in Libya Diffusing per WP:DIFFUSE and/or WP:ALLINCLUDED using Cat-a-lot

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{{Short description|British soldier and poet}}
{{EngvarB|date=September 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}}

'''The Hon. Alexander Hardinge Patrick Hore-Ruthven''' (30 August 1913 – 24 December 1942) was a British soldier and poet. He was born in [[Quetta]], [[British India]] (present-day [[Pakistan]]), the sole surviving child of [[Alexander Hore-Ruthven, 1st Earl of Gowrie|Alexander Hore-Ruthven]] and [[Zara, Countess of Gowrie|Zara Eileen Pollok]].

==Personal life==
{{more citations needed section|date=April 2017}}
Hore-Ruthven studied at [[Cambridge University]] in 1931 and met society beauty [[Pamela Cooper|Pamela Fletcher]] while he was temporarily [[rustication (academia)|rusticated]] from Cambridge in 1932 for having bitten a policeman's nose.<ref name="obit">[https://web.archive.org/web/20121114005249/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/pamela-cooper-410192.html Obituary: Pamela Cooper], ''[[The Independent]]''; retrieved 1 August 2013.</ref>

After graduating in 1933, he joined the Rifle Brigade, his grandfather's old regiment, and served in [[Malta]] for three years. Commissioned a second lieutenant in the Territorial Army on 2 July 1933, he received a regular commission on 1 September 1934 (seniority 31 August 1933).<ref name="ReferenceA">{{London Gazette|issue=33958|page=4556|date=7 July 1933}}</ref><ref>{{London Gazette|issue=34083|page=5522|date=31 August 1934}}</ref> He was promoted to lieutenant on 31 August 1936.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=34319|page=5661|date=1 September 1936}}</ref>

His father, Alexander Hore-Ruthven, was made [[Earl of Gowrie|Baron Gowrie]] in 1935 and 1st [[Earl of Gowrie]] in 1945.{{citation needed|date=April 2017}} Hore-Ruthven married Pamela Fletcher on 4 January 1939 at [[Westminster Abbey]], after their marriage was initially delayed due to a mutual lack of money. Her father, the Reverend Arthur Henry Fletcher officiated. Their first son, [[Grey Ruthven, 2nd Earl of Gowrie|Grey]], was born on 26 November 1939. After Hore-Ruthven's death, his widow was styled Viscountess Ruthven of Canberra.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=37155 |page=3409 |date=29 June 1945}}</ref> She remarried in 1949, to Major [[Derek Cooper]].

Hore-Ruthven's father [[Alexander Hore-Ruthven, 1st Earl of Gowrie]] died in May 1955, whereupon his elder son [[Grey Ruthven, 2nd Earl of Gowrie|Grey]] succeeded as the 2nd Earl of Gowrie.{{citation needed|date=April 2017}}

==World War II==
On the outbreak of the [[Second World War]] in 1939, Hore-Ruthven was posted to [[Cairo]]. Pamela left their baby with her parents in Dublin and accompanied Hore-Ruthven to Cairo. There, she became friends with [[Freya Stark]] and [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11926858/The-Dowager-Lady-Killearn-obituary.html Jacqueline Lampson]. She also worked in Intelligence with the anti-Nazi Arab Brotherhood of Freedom, while Hore-Ruthven joined the newly formed [[Special Air Service|SAS]]. He was promoted to captain on 31 August 1941.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=35262|supp=y|page=5086|date=29 August 1941}}</ref>

Pamela returned to Ireland in 1942 to give birth to their second son, [[Malise Ruthven|Malise]],<ref name=obit/> on 14 May 1942. Hore-Ruthven was Temporary Major when he died in Misurata Italian Hospital in [[Libya]] from wounds he received in a raid on a fuel dump near [[Tripoli, Libya|Tripoli]]. He died on 24 December 1942, and was buried in the war cemetery in Tripoli. A memorial fountain was constructed at [[Government House, Canberra|Government House]] in [[Canberra]].{{citation needed|date=April 2017}}

==Poetry==
{{unreferenced section|date=April 2017}}
Hore-Ruthven wrote several [[war poem]]s that were published in Australian and English newspapers. A collection of his poems was published posthumously in Australia in 1943 under the title ''The Happy Warrior'', with a preface written by his mother [[Zara, Countess of Gowrie|Lady Gowrie]]. It was subsequently republished in London in 1944 under the title ''Desert Warrior: Poems''. His collected letters were published in London in 1950 under the title ''Joy of Youth''.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
* [http://www.nla.gov.au/ms/findaids/2852.html#c0111 Papers of Lord Gowrie, relating to the death of Patrick Hore-Ruthven in 1942], nla.gov.au; accessed 11 June 2017.

== External links ==
*[http://www.images.act.gov.au/duslibrary/imagesact.nsf/V01/3FD82F7B98081950CA256ABC001FB408?OpenDocument Picture] of the memorial fountain from the ACT Heritage Library

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hore-Ruthven, Patrick}}
[[Category:1913 births]]
[[Category:1942 deaths]]
[[Category:Rifle Brigade officers]]
[[Category:Special Air Service officers]]
[[Category:British Army personnel killed in World War II]]
[[Category:Heirs apparent who never acceded]]
[[Category:People from Quetta]]
[[Category:Ruthven family|Patrick]]
[[Category:20th-century British poets]]
[[Category:British male poets]]
[[Category:20th-century British male writers]]
[[Category:British people in colonial India]]
[[Category:Military personnel of British India]]

Patrick Hore-Ruthven - Revision history

imported>Smasongarrison: Removing from Category:Burials in Libya Diffusing per WP:DIFFUSE and/or WP:ALLINCLUDED using Cat-a-lot