Lord Ronald Charles Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, was a British sculptor, best known for his statue of Shakespeare in Stratford-upon-Avon. He also wrote biographies of Marie Antoinette and Joan of Arc, as well as serving as Liberal Member of Parliament for Sutherland. He was accused by the Prince of Wales of “unnatural practices” and was one of several society figures implicated in the Cleveland Street Scandal, where a male brothel was raided by police.
Portrait of Lord Ronald Gower by Henry Scott Tuke, 1897
Gower's statue of Hamlet in Stratford-upon-Avon
Gower's lover Frank Hird in 1894, chalk drawing by Henry Scott Tuke.
The Cleveland Street scandal occurred in 1889, when a homosexual male brothel and house of assignation on Cleveland Street, London, was discovered by police. The government was accused of covering up the scandal to protect the names of aristocratic and other prominent patrons.
Illustration of Inspector Frederick Abberline from a contemporary newspaper
1887 caricature of Lord Arthur Somerset
American newspapers claimed that Prince Albert Victor was "mixed up" in the scandal.
Henry Labouchère accused the government of conspiring to hush up the scandal.