[3] He was educated at Audlem Grammar School, Cheshire,[4] and Eton College, then briefly attended Christ Church, Oxford in 1837 before entering the army.

[5] Throughout his military career and on Combermere distinguished himself as a sportsman acquiring a reputation of being a good shooter, steeple chase rider, and keen fly-fisherman.

Lord Combermere survived his wife by 22 years and died of coronary thrombosis at his London home in St James' Place in December 1891, aged 73, seven weeks after being run over by a horse-drawn carriage.

She set up her camera with its shutter open for one hour in the Abbey Library while the entire staff were out, attending Lord Combermere's funeral at St Margaret's Church, Wrenbury, some four miles away.

[9][10] Lord Combermere's father, the 1st Viscount, had been involved in a mysterious incident himself several years earlier while serving as Governor of Barbados when he had the Chase Vault opened and carefully examined in search of an explanation for the "moving coffins" there.