Algernon St. Maur, 15th Duke of Somerset (22 July 1846 – 22 October 1923, in Maiden Bradley) was the son of Algernon St. Maur, 14th Duke of Somerset and Horatia Morler. He was also a baronet. On September 5, 1877, he married Susan Margaret Richards Mackinnon, the ninth daughter of Charles Mackinnon of Corriechatachan, but the marriage was childless. He was educated at Britannia Royal Naval College, but later joined the 60th Rifles and took part in the Wolseley Expedition of 1870. He was a tall and athletic man, of powerful build. After leaving the Regular Army, he spent several years ranching in Western America. On accession to the Dukedom in 1894, he voted often in the House of Lords, although he seldom spoke there. He became president of Dr Barnardo's Homes, a charity which both he and the Duchess had supported for many years. When Somerset died in 1923, he left no son, and his brothers Lord Ernest and Lord Edward had both recently died childless, so his titles and estates were inherited by the nearest heir, his distant cousin Colonel Edward Seymour.

The Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey) was a line infantry regiment of the English and later the British Army from 1661 to 1959. It was the senior English line infantry regiment of the British Army, behind only the Royal Scots in the British Army line infantry order of precedence. The regiment was raised in 1661 by Henry Mordaunt, 2nd Earl of Peterborough as The Earl of Peterborough's Regiment of Foot on Putney Heath (then in Surrey) specifically to garrison the new English acquisition of Tangier, part of Catherine of Braganza's dowry when she married King Charles II. From this service, it was also known as the Tangier Regiment. As was usual at the time, it was also named after its current colonel, from one of whom, Percy Kirke, it acquired its nickname Kirke's Lambs. It was withdrawn along with the rest of the Tangier Garrison when Charles II abandoned the colony. In 1685, it was given the Royal title the Queen Dowager's Regiment of Foot (after Queen Catherine, widow of Charles II) and in 1703 became The Queen's Royal Regiment of Foot. In 1715, it was renamed The Princess of Wales's Own Regiment of Foot after Caroline of Ansbach, then Princess of Wales, and was re-designated The Queen's Own Regiment of Foot in 1727 when the Princess became Queen. It was ranked as 2nd Foot in the clothing regulations of 1747, and was renamed 2nd (The Queen's Royal) Regiment of Foot by Royal warrant in 1751. In the Childers reforms of 1881 it became the county regiment of West Surrey, named The Queen's (Royal West Surrey) Regiment.