Biography of John Leslie-Melville 12th Earl of Leven 11th Earl of Melville 1886-1913

The Observer. Sun, 15 Jun 1913

THE LATE EARL OF LEVEN (deceased), CURIOUS MEDICAL EVIDENCE AT INQUEST.

At the inquest at Westminster yesterday. on the Rt. Hon. John David Leslie-Melville, Earl of Leven and Melville, who died in a London nursing home on Thursday after the operation of trepanning which was found necessary on account of the injury he received in an accident in the hunting field, a verdict of accidental death was returned.

Mr. Charles Ballance, senior surgeon at St. Thomas's Hospital, practising at Harley-street, said in answer to the "coroner that deceased died from a severe fracture of the skull from tho kick of a horse. "On February 9, some time after the accident, I operated on him," said witness, "removing a broken bone-and-arresting-hemorrhage from a large artery which lies underneath the skull. I thought he would make a satisfactory recovery. The esult of this operation'was that thers was a large opening of the skull, and it was necessary at some future time to close this opening. On Tuesday last that opening was closed by the insertion of a platinum plate. Thera was no difficulty in the operation, There was no complication at all.

On Wednesday morning at 4.30 I was called to the nursing home, and I found him completely unconscious. On opening the wound I found that the artery was bleeding again. There was no difficulty in taking up that vessel and arresting the bleeding, but Lord Leven had already lost a good deal of blood. During the morning there was evidence of recovery, but in the afternoon complications set in and he died later on Wednesday evening.

What was the cause of death?—The cause of death was the hemorrhage from this artery.

When you stopped the bleeding in February, you had to remove a certain portion of tha skull, I Suppose?—That was already destroyed by the horse's kick.

Did he recover!—Entirely. He absolutely and completely recovered.

And if it had not been for this secondary hemorrhage from the artery he would have remained cured?—He would have been perfectly well.

Is that. socondary hemorrhage a kind of thing which sometimes does take place?—I think under these circumstances it is absolutely unknown. I know of no instances in surgical literature.

Was it on on at all by the second operation on the 10th?—I did not see the artery, It did not bleed, and there was no difficulty in the second operation.

How do you explain it. Mr. Ballance?— I have no explanation. It is. one of those mysterious things which it is impossible to explain ar forecast.

A verdict of accidental death was returned.

Washington Post 21 June 1913: New Earl of Melville.

Young Archibald Leslie Melville, 23 years of age, who has just become fifteenth Earl of Leven, and twelfth Earl of Melville, through the death of his elder brother [John Leslie-Melville 12th Earl of Leven 11th Earl of Melville (deceased)], caused by injuries sustained in the hunting fleld, is a soldier by profession, and a fellow officer of Prince Arthur of Connaught in that famous regiment of Scottish cavalry, the Scots Grays. It is probable, however, that he will now sever his connection with the army, In order to take charge of the banking interests of his family, which are very extensive. His elder brother, the late earl, was a member of the London banking firm of Huth & Co. His father was the principal partner in the London banking house of Melville, Evans, Fickus & Co., doing a large Anglo-American business, which brought him frequently across the Atlantic, while the new earl's grandfather, the eleventh Earl of Leven, was one of the chief partners of the banking house of Williams, Deacon, Labouchere, Thornton & Co.

Young Lord Leven succeeds to great wealth, as well as to a beautiful country seat In Oxfordshire, known as Kirtington Park, which originally belonged to the Dashwoods. It stands in a magnificent park of some 10,000 acres, with oaks and elms many centuries old, coeval, indeed, with both John of Gaunt and King ‘Henry V, who made their homes there. Indeed, it ie the finest place in the county, with the excention of Blenheim, and the mansion, built at the beginning of the eighteenth century, contains notable examples of Grinling Gibbons' carvings.

Lord Leven's family Is a very ancient one. The Melvilles flourished in the reign of David I, of William the Lion, and of Malcolm IV, one of them being the latter''s lord judiciary of Scotland. The first Lord Melville of the present creation was the Ambassador sent by James VI of Scotland to England in 1587 to plead with Queen Elizabeth for the life of Mary Queen of Scots. The fourth Lord Melville was ralsed to an earldom by Willlam III and married the granddaughter of that Sir Alexander Leslie who was one of the greatest generals of his time, and who, after having been appointed by King Gustavus Adolphus a field marshal of his army for his many victories in the thirty years' war, was created Lord Balgony and Earl of Leven by Charles X. The earldom was made transmissible in the female, as well as in the male line, and on the death of the second Leslie Earl of Leven without male issue, his honors passed to the second Earl of Melville, as his mother's heir, since which time the earldoms have always been united.