Upon Queen Victoria's death, Louise entered the social circle of her brother, the new King Edward VII, with whom she had much in common, including smoking. She had an obsession with physical fitness, and if she was sneered at for this, she would retort by saying: "Never mind, I'll outlive you all." Meanwhile, Louise's husband, 9th Duke of Argyll since 1900, took his seat in the House of Lords. The Colonial Secretary, Joseph Chamberlain, offered him the office of Governor-General of Australia that year, but the offer was declined. Louise continued her sculpture, and in 1902, designed a memorial to the colonial soldiers who died in the Boer War. In the same year, she began a nude study on a married woman suggested by the English painter Sir William Blake Richmond.