George Shaw-Lefevre, 1st Baron Eversley

The Right Honourable The Lord Eversley DL PC

First Commissioner of Works
In office 29 November 1881 – 13 February 1885
Monarch	Victoria
Prime Minister	William Ewart Gladstone
Preceded by	William Patrick Adam
Succeeded by	The Earl of Rosebery
In office 18 August 1892 – 10 March 1894
Monarch	Victoria
Prime Minister	William Ewart Gladstone
Preceded by	Hon. David Plunket
Succeeded by	Herbert Gladstone
Postmaster General
In office 7 November 1884 – 9 June 1885
Monarch	Victoria
Prime Minister	William Ewart Gladstone
Preceded by	Henry Fawcett
Succeeded by	Lord John Manners
President of the Local Government Board
In office 1894 – 21 June 1895
Monarch	Victoria
Prime Minister	The Earl of Rosebery
Preceded by	Henry Fowler
Succeeded by	Henry Chaplin
Personal details
Born	12 June 1831 (1831-06-12) Battersea
Died	19 April 1928(1928-04-19) (aged 96) Kings Worthy, Hampshire
Nationality	British
Political party	Liberal Party
Spouse(s)	Lady Constance Reynolds-Moreton (d. 1929)
Alma mater	Trinity College, Cambridge

George John Shaw-Lefevre, 1st Baron Eversley PC, DL (12 June 1831 – 19 April 1928) was a British Liberal Party politician. In a ministerial career that spanned thirty years, he was twice First Commissioner of Works and also served as Postmaster General and President of the Local Government Board.

Background and education

Eversley was the only son of Sir John Shaw-Lefevre and Rachel Emily, daughter of Ichabod Wright. He was born in Battersea, and was the nephew of Charles Shaw-Lefevre, 1st Viscount Eversley, Speaker of the House of Commons.^[1] He was educated at Eton and at Trinity College, Cambridge,^[2] and was called to the Bar, Inner Temple, in 1855.^[3]

Political career

Eversley stood unsuccessfully as the Liberal candidate for Winchester in 1859 but was successfully returned for Reading in 1863, a seat he held until 1885.^[4] He carried a vote in House of Commons for arbitration of the Alabama Claims in 1868. He held cabinet rank under Whig Lord Russell as Civil Lord of the Admiralty in 1866, a post he held until the government fell the same year, and later served under William Ewart Gladstone as Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade from 1868 to 1871, as Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department from January to March 1871, as Parliamentary Secretary of the Admiralty from 1871 to 1874 and again in 1880, after Christmas was sworn of the Privy Council. ^[5] A successful barrister-at-law, he was appointed a Bencher of the Inner Temple in 1882.^[3]

In parliament, the Liberal government made Shaw Levevre First Commissioner of Works from 1881 to 1885, before he finally entered Gladstone's cabinet in November 1884 on his appointment to Postmaster-General. He relinquished the post of First Commissioner of Works in February 1885 but continued as Postmaster General until the Liberals lost power in June 1885 to Salisbury's 'Caretaker' ministry. A general election was called for 27th November 1885, and Eversley lost his seat in parliament at the 1885 general election. He did not serve in Gladstone's brief 1886 administration, which was a coalition with Joe Chamberlain's Liberal Unionists. He was able to return to the House of Commons in April 1886 when he was elected for Bradford Central in a by-election, which constituency he represented until 1895.^[6] He once again became First Commissioner of Works and a member of Gladstone's cabinet in 1892. When Lord Rosebery became Prime Minister in 1894 he was appointed President of the Local Government Board, which he remained until the following year, when the Liberals were again defeated by Lord Salisbury's Conservatives. In 1897 he was elected a member of the London County Council as Progressive for the Haggerston Division. In 1906 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Eversley, of Old Ford in the County of London,^[7] a revival of the Eversley title held by his uncle. He made his last speech in the House of Lords in 1913.^[8]

Other public positions

Eversley was also a Commissioner to negotiate a Convention on Fisheries with French Government in 1858, a member of Sea Fisheries Commission in 1862, President of the Statistical Society of London between 1878 and 1879 and Chairman of the Royal Commissions on the Loss of Life at Sea in 1885 and on the Agricultural Depression between 1893 and 1896. In 1865 he co-founded the Commons Preservation Society, becoming its first chairman and, in 1905, its president.^[9]

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1899.^[10]

Family

Lord Eversley married Lady Constance Moreton, daughter of Henry Reynolds-Moreton, 3rd Earl of Ducie, in 1874. They had no children. He died in April 1928, aged 96, when the barony became extinct. He is buried in the graveyard at St Mary's Church, King's Worthy. Lady Eversley survived him by a year and died in February 1929.^[3]

It is interesting that one of his sisters, Maria Louisa Shaw Lefevre, can be identified as the anonymous author of The Notebooks Of A Spinster Lady, 1878-1903, published by Cassell in 1919.^{[lower-alpha 1]} In her notebooks she tells amusing stories of life in the upper classes of society in England at the time, makes candid observations of contemporary people and recounts jokes she heard told. She records that she attended the funeral of her good friend Augustus Hare in 1903. The book's editor, also unnamed, says she died in 1908. Reference to "The Times" lists her in its report on the funeral and the death records confirm she died in 1908.

Another sister, Madeleine Shaw-Lefevre, was the first Principal of Somerville Hall; and another Rachel married Arthur Hamilton-Gordon, son of the Prime Minister the 4th Earl of Aberdeen.

Notes

↑ The Notebooks Of A Spinster Lady, p.290, regarding her attendance at the funeral, and p.295 where the editor records that she died five years after 1903. The Times, 28 January p.10. "Among those present at the funeral...Miss Shaw Lefevre." First quarter 1908 her death record, East Preston folio 26 p.255.

References

↑ "George John Shaw-Lefevre, Baron Eversley". Family Search: Community Trees. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Retrieved 22 November 2012.
↑ "Shaw-Lefevre, George John (SHW849GJ)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
1 2 3 Lundy, Darryl. "thepeerage.com George John Shaw-Lefevre, 1st and last Baron Eversley".
↑ Craig, F. W. S. (1989) [1977]. British parliamentary election results 1832–1885 (2nd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. p. 251. ISBN 0-900178-26-4.
↑ The London Gazette: no. 24918. p. 6969. 28 December 1880.
↑ Craig, F. W. S. (1989) [1974]. British parliamentary election results 1885–1918 (2nd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. p. 79. ISBN 0-900178-27-2.
↑ The London Gazette: no. 27933. p. 4973. 20 July 1906.
↑ hansard.millbanksystems.com Mr George Shaw-Lefevre
↑ Lord Eversley, Commons, Forests and Footpaths (Cassell & Company, 1910), p. v.
↑ "Library and Archive catalog". Royal Society. Retrieved 2012-08-03.

External links

Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by George Shaw-Lefevre
Lundy, Darryl. "Photograph of Lord Eversley at thepeerage.com".

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Gillery Piggott Sir Francis Goldsmid, Bt	Member of Parliament for Reading 1863 – 1885 With: Sir Francis Goldsmid, Bt to 1878 George Palmer from 1878	Succeeded by Charles Townshend Murdoch
Preceded by William Edward Forster	Member of Parliament for Bradford Central 1886 – 1895	Succeeded by James Leslie Wanklyn
Political offices
Preceded by Lord John Hay	Civil Lord of the Admiralty 1866	Succeeded by Charles Du Cane
Preceded by New office	Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade 1868–1871	Succeeded by Arthur Peel
Preceded by Edward Knatchbull-Hugessen	Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department 1871	Succeeded by Henry Winterbotham
Preceded by William Edward Baxter (First Secretary to the Admiralty)	Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty 1871–1874	Succeeded by Hon. Algernon Egerton
Preceded by Hon. Algernon Egerton	Parliamentary Secretary of the Admiralty 1880	Succeeded by George Trevelyan
Preceded by William Patrick Adam	First Commissioner of Works 1881–1885	Succeeded by The Earl of Rosebery
Preceded by Henry Fawcett	Postmaster-General 1884–1885	Succeeded by Lord John Manners
Preceded by Hon. David Plunket	First Commissioner of Works 1892–1894	Succeeded by Herbert Gladstone
Preceded by Henry Fowler	President of the Local Government Board 1894–1895	Succeeded by Henry Chaplin
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation	Baron Eversley 1906–1928	Extinct

Presidents of the Royal Statistical Society

19th century	1834–1836 The Marquess of Lansdowne 1836–1838 Sir Charles Lemon, Bt 1838–1840 The Earl FitzWilliam 1840–1842 Viscount Sandon 1842–1843 The Marquess of Lansdowne 1843–1845 Lord Ashley 1845–1847 The Lord Monteagle of Brandon 1847–1849 The Earl FitzWilliam 1849–1851 The Earl of Harrowby 1851–1853 The Lord Overstone 1853–1855 The Earl FitzWilliam 1855–1857 The Earl of Harrowby 1857–1859 Lord Stanley 1859–1861 Lord John Russell 1861–1863 Sir John Pakington, Bt 1863–1865 William Henry Sykes 1865–1867 The Lord Houghton 1867–1869 William Ewart Gladstone 1869–1871 William Newmarch 1871–1873 William Farr 1873–1875 William Guy 1875–1877 James Heywood 1877–1879 George Shaw-Lefevre 1879–1880 Thomas Brassey 1880–1882 James Caird 1882–1884 Robert Giffen 1884–1886 Rawson W. Rawson 1886–1888 George Goschen 1888–1890 Thomas Graham Balfour 1890–1892 Frederic J. Mouat 1892–1894 Charles Booth 1894–1896 The Lord Farrer 1896–1897 John Biddulph Martin 1897 Alfred Edmund Bateman 1897–1899 Leonard Courtney 1899–1900 Henry Fowler 1900–1902 The Lord Avebury

20th century	1902–1904 Patrick George Craigie 1904–1905 Sir Francis Powell, Bt 1905–1906 The Earl of Onslow 1906–1907 Richard Martin 1907–1909 Sir Charles Dilke, Bt 1909–1910 Jervoise Athelstane Baines 1910–1912 Lord George Hamilton 1912–1914 Francis Ysidro Edgeworth 1914–1915 The Lord Welby 1915–1916 Lord George Hamilton 1916–1918 Bernard Mallet, Registrar General 1918–1920 Herbert Samuel 1920–1922 R. Henry Rew 1922–1924 The Lord Emmott 1924–1926 Udny Yule 1926–1928 The Viscount D'Abernon 1928–1930 A. William Flux 1930–1932 Sir Josiah Stamp 1932–1934 The Lord Meston 1934–1936 Major Greenwood 1936–1938 The Lord Kennet 1938–1940 Arthur Lyon Bowley 1940–1941 Henry William Macrosty 1941 Hector Leak 1941–1943 William Beveridge 1943–1945 Charles Ernest Snow 1945–1947 The Lord Woolton 1947–1949 David Heron 1949–1950 Sir Geoffrey Heyworth 1950–1952 Austin Bradford Hill 1952–1954 Ronald Fisher 1954–1955 The Lord Piercy 1955–1957 Egon Pearson 1957–1959 Harry Campion 1959–1960 Hugh Beaver 1960–1962 Maurice Kendall 1962–1964 Joseph Oscar Irwin 1964–1965 Sir Paul Chambers 1965–1966 L. H. C. Tippett 1966–1967 M. S. Bartlett 1967–1968 Frank Yates 1968–1969 Arthur Cockfield 1969–1970 R. G. D. Allen 1970–1971 Bernard Benjamin 1971–1972 George Alfred Barnard 1972–1973 Harold Wilson 1973–1974 D. J. Finney 1974–1975 Henry Daniels 1975–1977 Stella Cunliffe 1977–1978 Henry Wynn 1978–1980 Sir Claus Moser 1980–1982 David Cox 1982–1984 Peter Armitage 1984–1985 Walter Bodmer 1985–1986 John Nelder 1986–1987 James Durbin 1987–1989 John Kingman 1989–1991 Peter G. Moore 1991–1993 T. M. F. Smith 1993–1995 D. J. Bartholomew 1995–1997 Adrian Smith 1997–1999 R. N. Curnow 1999–2001 Denise Lievesley

21st century	2001–2003 Peter Green 2003–2005 Andy Grieve 2005–2007 Tim Holt 2008–2009 David Hand 2010–2010 Bernard Silverman (resigned Feb 2010; replaced pro tem by David Hand) 2011–2012 Valerie Isham 2013–John Pullinger

Category List

Authority control	WorldCat Identities VIAF: 64374807 LCCN: n50043344 ISNI: 0000 0001 0980 218X GND: 172070260 NLA: 36002717

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