George Weld-Forester, 3rd Baron Forester

{{Short description|British Conservative politician and army officer}}

{{Infobox officeholder

| honorific-prefix = General The Right Honourable

| name = The Lord Forester

| honorific-suffix = PC

| image = George Weld-Forester, Vanity Fair, 1875-10-16.jpg

| caption = Caricature of Lord Forester by "Ape" (Carlo Pellegrini) published in Vanity Fair in 1875.

| order1 = Comptroller of the Household

| term_start1 = 27 February 1852

| term_end1 = 17 December 1852

| monarch1 = Victoria

| primeminister1 = The Earl of Derby

| predecessor1 = The Earl of Mulgrave

| successor1 = Viscount Drumlanrig

| term_start2 = 26 February 1858

| term_end2 = 11 June 1859

| monarch2 = Victoria

| primeminister2 = The Earl of Derby

| predecessor2 = Viscount Castlerosse

| successor2 = Lord Proby

| birth_date = {{birth date text|10 May 1807}}

| birth_place =

| death_date = {{death-date and age|14 February 1886|10 March 1807}}

| death_place =

| nationality = British

| party = Conservative

| alma_mater =

| spouse = Hon. Mary Anne Jervis
(d. 1893)

}}

George Cecil Weld-Forester, 3rd Baron Forester PC (10 May 1807 – 14 February 1886), styled The Honourable George Weld-Forester between 1821 and 1874, was a British Conservative politician and army officer. He notably served as Comptroller of the Household in 1852 and from 1858 to 1859. A long-standing MP, he was the Father of the House of Commons from 1873 to 1874, when he succeeded his elder brother in the barony and took a seat in the House of Lords.

Early life

Weld-Forester, born at Sackville Street, London{{cite book|title=The Complete Peerage, Volume V|year=1926|publisher=St Catherine's Press|page=553}} was the second son of Cecil Weld-Forester, 1st Baron Forester, and Lady Katherine Mary Manners, daughter of Charles Manners, 4th Duke of Rutland. His elder brother John Weld-Forester, 2nd Baron Forester, was also a Tory politician Both the brothers had, as godfather at the same christening, the Prince of Wales, later King George IV, a personal friend of their father.{{cite news|title=Death of Lord Forester|work=Eddowes's Shrewsbury Journal and Salopian Journal|date=14 October 1874|page=5}}Obituary of the 2nd Baron.

He was educated at Westminster School.

Career

Weld-Forester entered the British Army on commission in 1824, he was a Captain of the Royal Horse Guards and was recorded residing at the Hyde Park Barracks the night of the 1841 census. He later became Lieutenant-Colonel of the Royal Horse Guards in 1853. He was promoted to staff rank as Major-General in 1863 and Lieutenant-General in 1871, retiring, aged seventy, as full General in 1877 but saw no campaign service.

=Political career=

Weld-Forester succeeded his brother as member of parliament for Wenlock in 1828, a seat he would hold for 46 years.{{Rayment-hc|w|2|date=March 2012}} He had been Groom of the Bedchamber to William IV from 1830 to 1831 and served in the first two Conservative administrations of the Earl of Derby as Comptroller of the Household between February{{London Gazette |issue=21297 |date=2 March 1852 |page=670 }} and December 1852{{London Gazette |issue=21401 |date=11 January 1853 |page=72 }} and from 1858{{London Gazette |issue=22106 |date=2 March 1858 |page=1207 }} to 1859.{{London Gazette |issue=22280 |date=28 June 1859 |page=2513 }} He was admitted to the Privy Council in 1852.{{London Gazette |issue=21296 |date=27 February 1852 |page=633 }} In 1873 he became Father of the House of Commons as the longest-serving member (then 45 years) of the House.{{Cite web |url=http://www.leighrayment.com/commons/fathercommons.htm |title=leighrayment.com Fathers of the House of Commons |access-date=25 March 2011 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080926113623/http://www.leighrayment.com/commons/fathercommons.htm |archive-date=26 September 2008 }} The following year he succeeded his elder brother as third Baron Forester and entered the House of Lords. In 1878 he served as treasurer of the Salop Infirmary in Shrewsbury.{{cite book|last=Keeling-Roberts|first=Margaret|title=In Retrospect, A Short History of the Royal Salop Infirmary|year=1981|page=xiii|isbn=0-9507849-0-7}}

Personal life

File:John Scott - Mary Anne Jervis, Lady Forester (c.1803–1893) (after James Godsell Middleton) - 1271521 - National Trust.jpg

Lord Forester married the Honourable Mary Anne Jervis, daughter of Edward Jervis, 2nd Viscount St Vincent, and widow of David Ochterlony Dyce Sombre, in 1862. They had no children.

Lord Forester died at 3 Carlton Gardens, London, in February 1886, aged 78, and was buried at Willey parish church. He was succeeded in the barony by his younger brother, Reverend Orlando Weld-Forester. Lady Forester died in March 1893.

The Lady Foresters Convalescent Home in Llandudno was opened in Lord Forester's honour in 1902.[http://www.greatorme.org.uk/craigydon.html greatorme.org]{{cite web|last=Milverton|first=Charles|title=Battling for the benefactress|url=http://www.shropshiremagazine.com/2010/07/battling-for-the-benefactress/|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131019060232/http://www.shropshiremagazine.com/2010/07/battling-for-the-benefactress/|archivedate=19 October 2013}}