John Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry(en.wikipedia.org) |
John Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry(en.wikipedia.org) |
Books could be, and have been, written about this person. I will confine myself to observing that (1) even his peers thought him a monster and (2) to judge the system by him is to judge it by its worst.
It's for people ("today's lucky 10,000") who might have heard of "Queensbury rules" as a general term for fair play but didn't know about boxing or what a Marquess is or about the connection with Oscar Wilde.
Also, as Wikipedia pages go these days, it seemed to me to be better than average in terms of presenting facts in a non-judgemental way.
The bit about his eldest son adds some depth to his character and context to his conflict with Wilde.