Cecil George Assheton DRUMMOND was born into a life of wealth and privilege as the seventh and last child of Andrew Robert Drummond, senior partner of Drummonds of Charing Cross, bankers to the royal family, nobility and to the rich and famous of the nineteenth century. His mother was Lady Elizabeth Frederica Manners, eldest child of the 5th Duke of Rutland. The Drummond family can trace its ancestry back through the great families and clans of both England and Scotland. His great-great grandfather, William Drummond, the 4th Viscount Strathallan was killed at the battle of Culloden in 1746 and the family was stripped of its land and titles. The Manners family was perhaps even grander with links to all the great landowning families that dominated politics and society up to the end of the nineteenth century and to the Plantagenet kings of England.

Cecil was born on the 14 April 1839 at the family's London home at 2 Bryanston Square in the newly developed Portman Estate. The Drummond country home was Cadland, near Fawley in Hampshire a vast estate overlooking the Solent with grounds designed by 'Capability' Brown and the main house designed by Henry Holland. The house was subsequently rebuilt by Sir Jeffry Wyattville. It was here that the Drummonds gathered at Christmas and staged drama events and records exist showing that Cecil took an active part and starring role in these.

School life for Cecil began with a tutor at Belvoir Castle, the family seat of the Dukes of Rutland and onwards to Eton before following his brother Alfred into the Army and enlisting in the Rifle Brigade on 24 October 1857 at the age of 18 with the rank of ensign. Cecil joined the newly raised 4th Battalion just as the 2nd and 3rd Battalions were posted to India at the time of the Indian Mutiny. Alfred Drummond had served with the Rifle Brigade in the Crimea but there are no records that show Cecil as seeing any combat but the 4th Battalion is recorded as being posted to Malta 1858-1863, Gibraltar 1863-1865, Canada 1865-1867 and finally back to the UK in 1867. Cecil is reported to have loved his regiment and two future sons-in-law both served in the Rifle Brigade. Promotion to Lieutenant came in 1859 and to Captain in 1870.

The census of 1871 shows Captain Drummond attending a house party at Belvoir Castle hosted by the bachelor 6th Duke and his sister, Cecil's now-widowed mother Lady Elizabeth. Others listed at Belvoir on that day include the Duchess of Cambridge, daughter in law of George III; the Prince and Princess of Teck parents of the future Queen Mary; The Duke and Duchess of St Albans; and the Earls of Shrewsbury, Rosslyn, Ferres and Wharncliffe and their spouses. The order in which these notable people are listed in the census also denotes the perceived precedence with the Duchess of Cambridge at the top and Cecil, being the 5th son of a gentleman at the bottom.

It was at this time that Cecil met Charlotte Brook at a ball held at Belvoir Castle. She was 19 years of age and heiress to Enderby Hall where she lived with her uncle and aunt, Charles and Elizabeth Brook. Charlotte's father William Leigh Brook of Meltham Hall near Huddersfield owned Meltham Mills a sewing cotton business. On a trip to Germany in 1855 her father and mother both contracted cholera and died. They are buried in Cologne. Charles became Charlotte's guardian and subsequently bought Enderby Hall and became patron of the parish of Enderby.

Cecil and Charlotte married on 26 October 1871 at St James's Church Westminster and their first child Elizabeth was born in August the following year at Queens Gate in London.

Charles Brook died in 1872 and Enderby Hall passed to Charlotte Drummond in her lifetime and thence to her eldest surviving son. In the absence of a son the Hall would revert back to the Brook family. Captain Drummond transferred to the Leicestershire Militia around this time, possibly to be close to the newly inherited family home in Enderby. Soon after Cecil left the Army and joined the family firm, Drummonds Bank in London and took up residence at 48 Prince's Gardens in London opposite his brother Edgar's house at number 8.

The Drummonds were to have 12 children but sadly three, all sons, were not to survive birth. Cecil Rowland Brook Drummond was born in Enderby in 1882 and was sent to Dartmouth Naval Training College aged 13 and received his first posting to the China Station based in Hong Kong in 1897 aged only 15. He contacted dysentery on the voyage out and died soon after arriving. A window in Enderby Parish Church commemorates this tragic event.

It was around 1882 that Cecil Drummond acquired a further property, Copthorne near Fawley, close to the other Drummond family properties of Cadland House and Eaglehurst and spent some of the year there. His daughter Dorothy was born there in 1885.

Cecil was never made a partner at Drummonds as there were limits to the number but both Edgar and Alfred his elder brothers became partners and Cecil retired from the bank in 1890 with a pension voted by the partners .

In retirement Cecil was an avid croquet player enjoying games with his children on the lawns of Enderby Hall or watching cricket and records show he enjoyed visiting his large extended family. He was a High Sheriff of Leicestershire in 1885 and a portrait of him by William E Miller was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1879 . His sister Frederica married the 9th Earl of Scarborough and their son, the 10th Earl, became a patron of Enderby Parish. Another brother, Sir Victor Drummond was a diplomat.

A sudden stroke in December 1903 brought about his death at the age of 64. He is buried in Enderby Churchyard alongside is wife who died in 1924 and commemorated in a window in the Church. Enderby Hall passed on to Eric Drummond the only survivor of his five sons and was eventually sold. All his seven daughters lived well into old age and all but one married.

Drummonds Bank is now part of the Royal Bank of Scotland, Cadland was demolished in 1954 but the name survives in the conversion of a cottage on the estate. The estate itself is much reduced as much now forms part of the Esso refinery at Fawley. The Rifle Brigade now forms part of the Royal Green Jackets. The world in which Captain Cecil Drummond lived is now long past and largely forgotten.