Sir Alexander Cornewall Duff-Gordon, 3rd Baronet (3 February 1811 – 27 October 1872) was a British civil servant and Baronet of Halkin. He was the husband of Lucie, Lady Duff-Gordon, a translator and writer best known for her correspondence on Egypt. Early life Duff-Gordon was born 3 February 1811 the eldest son of Sir William Duff-Gordon, a younger son of the House of Aberdeen and his mother, Caroline, who was a daughter of Sir George Cornewall. He succeeded to his father's title on 8 March 1823. Marriage At a society ball at Lansdowne House, the London home of the Marquess of Lansdowne in 1838 he meet Lucie Austin who was ten years his junior. Lucie was the daughter of literary translator Sarah Austin and legal philosopher John Austin. The couple married despite the initial objections of his mother over Lucie's lack of a dowry) on 16 May 1840 in Kensington Old Church. Following their marriage, the couple resided at 8 Queen Square, Westminster, a house with a statue of Queen Anne at one end, since renumbered as 15 Queen Anne's Gate. Here a remarkable circle of friends and acquaintances frequently met: Lord Lansdowne, Lord Monteagle, Caroline Norton, Dickens, Thackeray, Elliot Warburton, Tom Taylor, Tennyson, Alexander Kinglake, and Henry Taylor were habitués. Every foreigner of talent and renown looked upon the house as a centre of interest. On one occasion Leopold von Ranke was among the visitors. Following the birth of their son, Maurice, in 1849, Lady Duff-Gordon began to succumb to tuberculosis and by the winter of 1861 she had become so ill that her doctors advised her to travel to a warmer, drier climate. After trying Ventnor for two winters, left her husband and children behind in England and went on a voyage to the Cape of Good Hope in 1860. Upon her return to England she was persuaded to go to Eaux Bonnes in the autumn of 1862, which reportedly did harm her health. Lady Duff-Gordon then decided to visit the newly fashionable Egypt, leaving her husband and children behind in England. She reached Alexandria in October 1862 and, except for two short visits to England in 1863 and 1865, she remained there for the sake of her health and separated from her husband until her death in 1869. Career Duff-Gordon was for many years a clerk in the Treasury, and acted as private secretary to at least