The Earl of Strafford | |
---|---|
Comptroller of the Household | |
In office 6 May 1835 – 23 June 1841 | |
Monarchs |
William IV Victoria |
Prime Minister | The Viscount Melbourne |
Preceded by | Hon. Henry Lowry-Corry |
Succeeded by | Lord Marcus Hill |
Treasurer of the Household | |
In office 23 June 1841 – 30 August 1841 | |
Monarch | Victoria |
Prime Minister | The Viscount Melbourne |
Preceded by | Earl of Surrey |
Succeeded by | Earl Jermyn |
Personal details | |
Born | 8 June 1806 |
Died | 29 October 1886 | (aged 80)
Nationality | British |
Political party | Whig |
Spouse(s) | (1) Lady Agnes Paget (c. 1809–1845) (2) Hon. Harriett Cavendish (d. 1892) |
Alma mater | Royal Military Academy Sandhurst |
George Stevens Byng, 2nd Earl of Strafford, PC (8 June 1806 – 29 October 1886), styled Viscount Enfield between 1847 and 1860, of Wrotham Park in Middlesex (now Hertfordshire) and of 5 St James's Square, London, was a British peer and Whig politician.
Byng was the eldest son of Field Marshal John Byng, 1st Earl of Strafford (1772–1860) by his first wife, Mary Mackenzie. [1]
In 1822, after graduating from the Royal Military College, Byng joined the 29th Regiment of Foot as an ensign by purchase. In 1825 he transferred to the 85th Regiment of Foot as a lieutenant and was promoted to captain in 1826,[ citation needed] in which rank he served in the 60th Rifles. In 1837, after he had begun his political career, he was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel of the part-time Royal West Middlesex Militia. [2] On the death of the regiment's colonel in 1844 Byng succeeded to the command. His eldest son, the Hon George Byng, was commissioned as his lt-col on 30 October 1853. He retired from the command and became the regiment's Honorary Colonel on 5 December 1859. [3]
Byng's political career began in 1830 when he was elected as a Member of Parliament for Milborne Port, [4] a seat he briefly held before taking the post of Comptroller of the Household to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland (his father-in-law, Lord Anglesey), less than a year later.[ citation needed] When his former co-MP, William Sturges-Bourne resigned his seat a few weeks later, Byng returned to his former seat and held it until the Great Reform Bill of 1832 abolished the constituency. [4] From 1834 he was MP for the new constituency of Chatham, a seat he held until 1835 and again from 1837 to 1852. [5] He served under Lord Melbourne as a Lord of the Treasury between June and November 1834.
According to the Legacies of British Slave-Ownership at the University College London, Strafford made an unsuccessful claim for compensation in the aftermath of the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 with the Slave Compensation Act 1837. [6]
Between 1836 and 1837 he represented Poole in parliament. [7] He again served under Lord Melbourne as Comptroller of the Household between 1835 [8] and 1841 [9] and as Treasurer of the Household between June [9] and August 1841 [10] and was sworn of the Privy Council in 1835. [11] When Lord John Russell became Prime Minister in 1846, Byng was appointed Joint Secretary to the Board of Control, a post he retained until 1847.
After losing his parliamentary seat in 1852, Byng was summoned to the House of Lords through a writ of acceleration in his father's barony of Strafford a year later [12] and inherited his father's earldom in 1860.
Byng married twice:
Lord Strafford died in October 1886, aged 80, and was succeeded in his titles by his eldest son, George. The Countess of Strafford died in June 1892. [1]
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