The Earl of Balfour | |
|---|---|
 Gerald Balfour in an 1899 portrait byGeorge Frederic Watts. | |
| President of the Board of Trade | |
| In office 12 November 1900 – 14 March 1905 | |
| Monarchs | Victoria Edward VII |
| Prime Minister | The Marquess of Salisbury Arthur Balfour |
| Preceded by | Charles Ritchie |
| Succeeded by | The Marquess of Salisbury |
| President of the Local Government Board | |
| In office 14 March 1905 – 4 December 1905 | |
| Monarch | Edward VII |
| Prime Minister | Arthur Balfour |
| Preceded by | Walter Long |
| Succeeded by | John Burns |
| Chief Secretary for Ireland | |
| In office 21 June 1895 – 9 November 1900 | |
| Monarch | Victoria |
| Prime Minister | The Marquess of Salisbury |
| Preceded by | John Morley |
| Succeeded by | George Wyndham |
| Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal | |
| In office 19 March 1930 – 14 January 1945 as ahereditary peer | |
| Preceded by | The 1st Earl of Balfour |
| Succeeded by | The 3rd Earl of Balfour |
| Member of Parliament forLeeds Central | |
| In office 18 December 1885 – 8 February 1906 | |
| Preceded by | Constituency created |
| Succeeded by | Robert Armitage |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Gerald William Balfour (1853-04-09)9 April 1853 Edinburgh, Scotland |
| Died | 14 January 1945(1945-01-14) (aged 91) Whittingehame, Scotland |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 7 |
| Parent(s) | James Maitland Balfour Lady Blanche Gascoyne-Cecil |
| Alma mater | Trinity College, Cambridge |
Gerald William Balfour, 2nd Earl of Balfour,PC (9 April 1853 – 14 January 1945), known asGerald Balfour orThe Rt Hon. G. W. Balfour until 1930, was a seniorBritish Conservative politician who became a peer on the death of his brother, former prime ministerArthur Balfour, in 1930.
Balfour was born inEdinburgh on 9 April 1853, the fourth son ofJames Maitland Balfour, ofWhittingehame, Haddingtonshire, and Lady Blanche Cecil, daughter ofJames Gascoyne-Cecil, 2nd Marquess of Salisbury.[1] TwoPrime Ministers were immediate relations:Arthur Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour, his elder brother, andLord Salisbury, his uncle. He was educated atEton and atTrinity College, Cambridge, where he gained 1st Class Honours in the ClassicalTripos.[2]
Balfour sat asConservative Member of Parliament forLeeds Central from 1885 to 1906.[1] During this time he was a member of Commission on Labour, andprivate secretary to his brother,Arthur Balfour, when he waspresident of the Local Government Board from 1885 to 1886.[1] He served asChief Secretary for Ireland from 1895 to 1900, aspresident of the Board of Trade from 1900 to 1905 and aspresident of the Local Government Board in 1905.[1] He was admitted to thePrivy Council of Ireland in 1895, and to thePrivy Council of the United Kingdom in 1905.
After losing his seat in the House of Commons in the Liberal landslide of1906, he was chairman of the Commission on Lighthouse Administration in 1908, and chairman of the Cambridge Committee of the Commission on Oxford and Cambridge Universities. He succeeded his brother Arthur as second Earl of Balfour in 1930, according to a special remainder in theletters patent and took a seat in theHouse of Lords.
During his first spell at the Houses of Parliament, Balfour received an honoraryLLD from Cambridge University, and was a fellow ofTrinity.
From 1901 Balfour lived at Fisher's Hill House, a large home which he had built byLutyens inHook Heath,Woking, Surrey, also living in the rural hamlet by 1911 wasAlfred Lyttelton (Lib. U.),Secretary of State for the Colonies (1903–1905) who married into his wider family and theDuke of Sutherland.[3]
Balfour was interested inparapsychology.[4] He was President of theSociety for Psychical Research (1906–1907).[5]
Lord Balfour marriedLady Elizabeth Edith "Betty" Bulwer-Lytton, daughter of the1st Earl of Lytton, formerViceroy of India, in 1887. They had six children:
An affair with Welsh Liberal politicianWinifred Coombe Tennant resulted in a further child, Augustus Henry.[6]
The Countess of Balfour died in 1942, aged 74. Lord Balfour survived her by three years and died atWhittingehame on 14 January 1945, aged 91, by which time he was the last surviving member of any of long-serving Prime MinisterSalisbury's cabinets.[1] He was succeeded in the earldom by his only sonRobert.
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| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
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| New constituency | Member of Parliament forLeeds Central 1885–1906 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Chief Secretary for Ireland 1895–1900 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | President of the Board of Trade 1900–1905 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | President of the Local Government Board 1905 | Succeeded by |
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
| Preceded by | Earl of Balfour 1930–1945 Member of theHouse of Lords (1930–1945) | Succeeded by |
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