Philip Alexius de László 1869-1937

Commissioned by the sitter and thence by family descent to the present owner

Painted in July 1924.

Sir Robert Gresley (1866-1936) came into possession of the family seat of Drakelow Hall, Burton-on-Trent at the age of two. He married Lady Frances Spencer-Churchill, daughter of the 8th Duke of Marlborough in 1893. The last Gresley of Drakelow, Sir Robert was forced through financial pressures to move out of his ancestral home in 1931 and the magnificent contents were sold in a seven-day, 2000-lot sale in 1933. When Drakelow was sold a link of 28 generations was broken - a record of continuity scarcely matched by any other family in the country.