George Leveson-Gower Explained

Honorific-Prefix:Sir
George Leveson-Gower
Honorific-Suffix:KBE
Order1:Comptroller of the Household
Term Start1:25 August 1892
Term End1:21 June 1895
Monarch1:Victoria
Primeminister1:William Ewart Gladstone
The Earl of Rosebery
Predecessor1:Lord Arthur Hill
Successor1:Lord Arthur Hill
Birth Date:19 May 1858
Nationality:British
Party:Liberal
Spouse:Hon. Adelaide Monson (d. 1955)

Sir George Granville Leveson-Gower KBE (19 May 1858 – 18 July 1951), was a British civil servant and Liberal politician from the Leveson-Gower family. He held political office as Comptroller of the Household between 1892 and 1895 and later served as a Commissioner of Woods and Forests from 1908 to 1924. In 1921 he was knighted.

Background and education

A member of the Leveson-Gower family headed by the Duke of Sutherland, Leveson-Gower was the son of the Honourable Frederick Leveson-Gower, third son of Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Earl Granville. His mother was Lady Margaret Compton, daughter of Spencer Compton, 2nd Marquess of Northampton. She died shortly after his birth and his father never remarried. He was educated at Eton[1] and Balliol College, Oxford.

Career

Leveson-Gower was private secretary to Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone from 1880 to 1885. He then entered Parliament for Staffordshire North-West, and served under Gladstone as a Junior Lord of the Treasury from February to July 1886. He lost his seat in the 1886 general election but returned to the House of Commons when he was elected for Stoke-upon-Trent in an 1890 by-election, a seat he held until 1895. He was Comptroller of the Household from 1892 to 1895 under Gladstone and later Lord Rosebery. Leveson-Gower later served as chairman of the Home Counties Liberal Federation from 1905 to 1908[1] and as a Commissioner of Woods and Forests from 1908 to 1924. He was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in January 1921.

Family

Leveson-Gower married the Honourable Adelaide Violet Cicely Monson, daughter of Debonnaire John Monson, 8th Baron Monson, in 1898. They had three daughters. He died in London on 18 July 1951, aged 93.[2] Lady Leveson-Gower died in April 1955.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Brief biography at economia.unipv.it . 10 November 2007 . 23 March 2008 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080323093723/http://economia.unipv.it/harrod/edition/editionstuff/rfh.4c2.htm . dead .
  2. News: G. Leveson Gower, Aide to Gladstone . 10 February 2023 . . London . 1951-07-18 . 19 July 1951 . 23 . subscription.