George Leveson-Gower

{{Short description|British civil servant and Liberal politician}}

{{about||the English politician, diplomat and landowner|George Leveson-Gower, 1st Duke of Sutherland}}

{{Infobox officeholder

| honorific-prefix = Sir

| name = George Leveson-Gower

| honorific-suffix = KBE

| image = George Granville Leveson-Gower, Vanity Fair, 1886-08-14.jpg

| imagesize = 200px

| caption = "My dear George". Caricature of Edward Leveson-Gower by Spy published in Vanity Fair in 1886.

| 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 = {{Birth date|1858|05|19|df=yes}}

| birth_place =

| death_date = {{death-date and age|18 July 1951|19 May 1858}}

| death_place =

| nationality = British

| party = Liberal

| alma_mater = Balliol College, Oxford

| 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{{Cite web |url=http://economia.unipv.it/harrod/edition/editionstuff/rfh.4c2.htm |title=Brief biography at economia.unipv.it |access-date=10 November 2007 |archive-date=23 March 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080323093723/http://economia.unipv.it/harrod/edition/editionstuff/rfh.4c2.htm |url-status=dead }} 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,{{Rayment-hc|s|4|date=March 2012}} and served under Gladstone as a Junior Lord of the Treasury from February{{London Gazette |issue=25559 |date=16 February 1886 |page=743 }} 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.{{Rayment-hc|s|5|date=March 2012}} He was Comptroller of the Household from 1892{{London Gazette |issue=26320 |date=26 August 1892 |page=4889 }} to 1895{{London Gazette |issue=26643 |date=12 July 1895 |page=3945 }} under Gladstone and later Lord Rosebery. Leveson-Gower later served as chairman of the Home Counties Liberal Federation from 1905 to 1908 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.{{London Gazette |issue=32188 |date=11 January 1921 |page=277 }}

Family

File:Adelaide Violet Cicely Leveson-Gower (1870–1955) and child Iris Irma Leveson-Gower (1899–1944).png

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.{{cite news |title=G. Leveson Gower, Aide to Gladstone |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1951/07/19/archives/g-leveson-gower-aide-to-gladstone.html |access-date=10 February 2023 |newspaper=The New York Times |place=London |date=1951-07-18 |publication-date=19 July 1951 |page=23 |url-access=subscription}} Lady Leveson-Gower died in April 1955.