The Wellington Connection - Chad & Jeremy

You may recall that when Hubby and I were in London recently we did the Hop On, Hop Off bus tour, during which I learned that Jeremy Clyde, one half of the musical duo Chad and Jeremy, was related to the Duke of Wellington. This was news to me, so of course I had to do further research on the subject. It turns out that Jeremy's mother is Lady Elizabeth Clyde (b. 1918), the daughter of Gerald Wellesley, 7th Duke of Wellington, and Dorothy Violet Ashton, and is thus a great-great-granddaughter of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. Jeremy Clyde, born Michael Thomas Jeremy Clyde, is an actor as well as a musician and made his first public appearance as a pageboy to his grandfather, the Duke of Wellington, at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom in 1953.

During the 1960s, he was one half of the folk duo Chad and Jeremy, who had little success in the UK but were an object of interest to American audiences. He has enjoyed a long television acting career, and continues to appear regularly on the tube, usually playing upper-middle class or aristocratic characters. Most recently, Jeremy appeared in Season 2, Episode 1 of Downton Abbey playing, coincidentally, a military general. Another coincidence, or not, is the uncanny resemblance Jeremy has to his ancestor, the first Duke of Wellington.

To learn more about Chad and Jeremy, the backstory of their partnership and what they're doing now, you can visit their website here.