Honorific Prefix: | Commander The Right Honourable |
The Lord Ellenborough | |
Office: | Member of the House of Lords |
Status: | Lord Temporal |
Term Label: | as a hereditary peer |
Term Start: | 29 July 1902 |
Predecessor: | The 4th Baron Ellenborough |
Term End: | 9 December 1915 |
Successor: | The 6th Baron Ellenborough |
Birth Name: | Edward Downes Law |
Birth Date: | 9 May 1841 |
Allegiance: | United Kingdom |
Branch: | Royal Navy |
Rank: | Commander |
Commander Edward Downes Law, 5th Baron Ellenborough (9 May 1841 – 9 December 1915), was a British Royal Navy officer and member of the House of Lords.
Law was educated at Charterhouse and entered the Royal Navy in 1854 aged just 13.
Law was a naval cadet with, serving in the Baltic during the Crimean War in 1855 and was awarded the Baltic Medal. He became a sub-lieutenant in 1860 and a lieutenant in 1861, and in 1867 he passed as an interpreter in French. During the American Civil War, he was serving on the North America and West Indies Station. He transferred to the frigate, and was with her in China during the Second Opium War (1859–1861) and was awarded the Second China War Medal. In 1873, he was lieutenant commanding, and saw service during the Third Anglo-Ashanti War and was awarded the Ashanti Medal. He retired as commander later in 1873.[1]
Law was the eldest son of Henry Spencer Law and succeeded to the peerage on the death of his cousin, Charles Towry-Law, 4th Baron Ellenborough, in June 1902.[2] He took his seat in the House of Lords on 29 July 1902.[3]
Lord Ellenborough married in 1906 Hermione Octavia Croghan Schenley, daughter of E. W. H. Schenley, of Pittsburgh, and ward of Andrew Carnegie,[4] and they lived at Windlesham Court in Surrey. He died in 1915 and was succeeded by his brother Cecil, who became the 6th Baron Ellenborough.