Sir John Pepys Lister-Kaye, 3rd Baronet, OBE, DL (18 February 1853 – 27 May 1924), was a Groom in Waiting to his friend, King Edward VII.
Early life
Lister-Kay was born on 18 February 1853.[1] He was the eldest son of Lister Lister-Kaye (1827–1855) and the former Lady Caroline Pepys.[2] His brother was Cecil Edmund Lister-Kaye. His father died on 12 April 1855, at age twenty-seven, predeceasing John's grandfather, the 2nd Baronet.[3] His mother, who never remarried died in January 1902.
On 13 April 1871, upon the death of his paternal grandfather, he succeeded as the 3rd Baronet Lister-Kaye of Grange. He gained the rank of Lieutenant in the Royal Horse Guards and Yorkshire Hussars. He held the office of Groom-in-Waiting to King Edward VII from 4 June 1908 to 10 June 1910,[8] with whom he was a close friend.[9]
In November 1914, Sir John appeared before the Bankruptcy Court in London attributing his troubles "to the financing of a company formed to develop property in Croatia, in Hungary."[10] His discharge was suspended for two years in March 1915.[11] He later ran farms in California and Canada, and "is said to have lost half a million dollars in the ventures."[12] He "also had large concessions in the Far East."[13]
John Digby Lister-Kaye (1882–1882), who died in infancy.
Sir John died on 27 May 1924, at age 71, from angina pectoris in a London nursing home.[12] He was succeeded in his title by his younger brother, Sir Cecil Lister-Kaye, 4th Baronet.[12] His widow, Lady Lister-Kay died in her apartment at the Hotel Ambassador on 13 February 1943 at age 83.[13]