Beilby Lawley, 3rd Baron Wenlock explained

Honorific-Prefix:The Right Honourable
The Lord Wenlock
Order1:Governor of Madras
Term Start1:23 January 1891
Term End1:18 March 1896
Predecessor1:John Henry Garstin (acting)
Successor1:Sir Arthur Elibank Havelock
Governor-General1:The Marquess of Lansdowne
The Earl of Elgin
Constituency Mp2:Chester
Predecessor2:John George Dodson
Successor2:Constituency abolished
Monarch2:Queen Victoria
Term Start2:1880
Term End2:1880
Birth Date:1849 5, df=yes
Birth Place:London, England
Death Place:Portland Place, London, England
Nationality:British
Party:Conservative Party
Education:Eton College
Alma Mater:Trinity College, Cambridge
Father:Beilby Lawley
Mother:Lady Elizabeth Grosvenor
Relatives:Richard Lawley (brother)
Arthur Lawley (brother)

Beilby Lawley, 3rd Baron Wenlock (12 May 1849 – 15 January 1912) was a British soldier, Liberal politician and colonial administrator who was the Governor of Madras from 1891 to 1896.

Early life

Lawley was the son of Beilby Lawley, 2nd Baron Wenlock and his wife Lady Elizabeth Grosvenor, daughter of Richard Grosvenor, 2nd Marquess of Westminster. He was educated at Eton College and at Trinity College, Cambridge. He was commissioned into the Yorkshire Hussars in 1869, and rose to the rank of Captain.

Political career

Wenlock was active in local affairs as a Justice of the Peace for the East and North Ridings of Yorkshire and as Chairman of East Riding County Council. At the 1880 general election he was elected Member of Parliament for Chester but inherited his peerage later in the year and was elevated to the House of Lords.

Governor of Madras

In 1890, Lawley was appointed Governor of Madras by the Conservative Party which came to power in the United Kingdom. Beilby Lawley served as the governor of Madras from 23 January 1891 to 18 March 1896. Lawley laid the foundation stone for the Nilgiri Mountain Railway which was begun in August 1891 when he was governor.[1] During 1891–92, the northern districts of Madras Presidency were gripped by a terrible famine.[2] The government's persistence in continuing grain export from the districts of Ganjam and Viazgapatm made the situation even worse. Lawley established the Board of Mohammedan Education in 1893. In 1895, Lawley laid the foundation stone for a solar observatory at Kodaikanal.[3] The Wenlock Ward of General Hospital, Madras was established in his memory. During his tenure Madras government acquired an hospital in Mangalore and renamed as Wenlock District Hospital.

Lawley made significant enlargements to the Government House (now Raj Bahvan), Madras. Lawley also laid the foundation stone of the Madras High Court.[4] [5]

Later life

In 1901 Wenlock was appointed a Privy Counsellor and made a Lord of the Bedchamber to the new Prince of Wales (later George V).He was elected chairman of the East Riding of Yorkshire County Council in January 1902.[6] Wenlock held the position of Vice Chamberlain to Queen Mary from 1910 until his death.[7]

Lord Wenlock was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel of the East Riding of Yorkshire Yeomanry on 15 May 1902 and later became its Honorary Colonel. He also held the honorary colonelcies of several Volunteer units, including the 2nd East Riding Artillery Volunteers (from 30 March 1880) and its successors in the Territorial Force, the II Northumbrian Brigade, Royal Field Artillery, whose drill hall at Anlaby Road, Hull, was later named Wenlock Barracks.[8] [9] [10] [11]

Family

In 1872 he married Lady Constance Mary Lascelles, daughter of the 4th Earl of Harewood, by whom he had one daughter: Hon. Irene Constance Lawley (b. 1889). She married Colin Gurden Forbes-Adam of Skipwith, Yorkshire. The Forbes-Adam family retain the Escrick estate which they now operate as a holiday and pleasure park.[12]

He was succeeded in the Barony by his brother Richard.

Honours and awards

Lord Wenlock received several British Orders and decorations:

References

Notes and References

  1. Web site: History of Ooty.
  2. News: Starving to Death in Madras: Another terrible famine in some districts of India. 7 August 1891. The New York Times.
  3. News: Of astronomical significance. https://web.archive.org/web/20121107183915/http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/2001/05/31/stories/0431401x.htm. dead. 7 November 2012. The Hindu. 31 May 2001.
  4. Web site: History of the Madras High Court. Madras High Court.
  5. http://www.newindpress.com/sunday/colItems.asp?ID=SEC20020328080459 Restoring the old Article from NewIndPress news website
  6. Court Circular. 28 January 1902 . 7 . 36676.
  7. Book: Cokayne, G.E. . Gibbs . V. . The complete peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom: extant, extinct, or dormant . The St. Catherine press, ltd. . The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom: Extant, Extinct, Or Dormant . v. 12, pt. 2 . 1959 . 487.
  8. Army List.
  9. https://www.geograph.org.uk/article/WW1-Great-War-Centenary---Drill-Halls/13#east-riding Hull at Great War Centenary Drill Halls.
  10. http://www.drillhalls.org/Counties/Yorkshire/TownHull.htm Hull at Drill Hall Project.
  11. https://archive.org/stream/debrettshouseo1881londuoft#page/132/mode/2up Debretts House of Commons and the Judicial Bench 1881
  12. Web site: Papers of the Forbes Adam/Thompson/Lawley Family of Escrick . 14 April 2007 . 30 September 2007 . https://web.archive.org/web/20070930043419/http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/genesis/search/$-search-results.cfm?CCODE=2352 . dead .