Background
Coke was the son of Thomas William Coke, 3rd Earl of Leicester, and Honorary
Coke was the son of Thomas William Coke, 3rd Earl of Leicester, and Honorary
Eton College; Royal Military College, Sandhurst.
Alice Emily White. Educated at Eton and Sandhurst, he entered the Scots Guards as a cadet, and was promoted to second lieutenant on 21 February 1900. Coke was seconded for service in the Second Boer War on 26 November 1901, and was promoted to lieutenant on 22 April 1902. He went on half-pay on 13 April 1905 due to illness, but returned to service on 8 November 1905.
Coke was promoted to captain on 14 March 1906.
On 1 October 1909, he was commissioned a lieutenant in the Norfolk Yeomanry. Made a captain in the General Reserve of Officers on 4 June 1911, he surrendered his commission in the General Reserve on 10 July 1912 to return to the Scots Guards as a captain.
He would serve with the Guards for the duration of the First World War. On 1 May 1917 he was appointed an aide-de-camp.
Coke was also a Knight of the Order of Saint John, and a Justice of the Peace for Norfolk.
He was a talented violinist. He succeeded his father as Earl of Leicester in 1941 and was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Norfolk in 1944. Leicester was married on 2 December 1905 to Marion Gertrude Trefusis, daughter of Colonel Honorary Walter Trefusis and Lady Mary Montagu-Douglas-Scott.
Lady Mary was the daughter of Walter Montagu Douglas Scott, 5th Duke of Buccleuch.
They had five children:
Honorary Angela Mary Coke (born 6 November 1906, died December 1906)
Major Thomas William Edward Coke, 5th Earl of Leicester (born 16 May 1908, died 3 September 1976)
Lady Silvia Beatrice Coke (born 19 October 1909, died October 2005)
Honorary David Arthur Coke, Distinguished Flying Cross (born 4 December 1915, killed in action 9 December 1941)
Lady Katharine Mary Coke (7 March 1920 – 6 October 1993).