Ivor Guest, 1st Baron Wimborne

"Tennis"
As depicted by Théobald Chartran in Vanity Fair, 23 September 1882

Ivor Bertie Guest, 1st Baron Wimborne (29 August 1835 – 22 February 1914) was a Welsh industrialist.

Biography

Sir Ivor Bertie Guest was born at Dowlais, near Merthyr Tydfil, the son of Lady Charlotte Guest, translator of the Mabinogion, and Sir John Josiah Guest, owner of the world's largest iron foundry, Dowlais Ironworks. His middle name (Bertie) was from his mother's family, the Earls of Abingdon, descended from a Tudor courtier who married the Dowager Duchess of Suffolk, and herself suo jure Baroness Willoughby de Eresby.

Educated at Harrow School in Middlesex, he went on to gain a Master of Arts degree from Trinity College, Cambridge in 1856.^[1] He was commissioned a cornet in the Dorsetshire Yeomanry on 20 April 1858^[2] and was promoted lieutenant on 11 March 1867.^[3]

He held the office of High Sheriff of Glamorgan in 1862 and was the mayor of Poole from 1896-1897.^[4] In 1879 he rebuilt the real tennis court at Canford.^[5] He was lampooned in Vanity Fair as "the paying Guest".^[6]

Guest succeeded his father to his baronetcy following his death in 1852. He was elevated to the peerage in 1880 as Baron Wimborne, of Canford Magna in the County of Dorset, on Disraeli's initiative.^[7]

From 1874 on, he stood unsuccessfully for election to the House of Commons as a Conservative, contesting Glamorganshire at the 1874 general election,^[8] Poole at a by-election May 1874,^[9] and Bristol at a by-election in 1878 and at the 1880 general election.^[10] However, following the tariff reform by Chamberlain he seceded from the Conservative party and sat in the House of Lords as a Liberal.^[11]

He was President of the Dean Close Memorial School from 1902.^[12]

Family

Cornelia Henrietta Maria Spencer-Churchill (Mabel Lee Hankey, 1905)

Guest married Lady Cornelia Henrietta Maria Spencer-Churchill (1847-1927), daughter of John Spencer-Churchill, 7th Duke of Marlborough, on 25 May 1868 and was thus an uncle-by-marriage of Sir Winston Churchill.^[4]

In 1867, Guest bought at auction "Hamilton House" located at 22 Arlington Street in the St. James's district of the City of Westminster in central London from the widow of William Hamilton, 11th Duke of Hamilton. As the house had traditionally been renamed with the title of each peer who owned it, upon receiving his title in 1880, Guest renamed the house "Wimborne House".^[13]

He died on 22 February 1914 at Canford Manor in Dorset^[11] and was succeeded by his son, Ivor Churchill Guest, 2nd Baron Wimborne, 1st Baron Ashby St Ledgers, who was later created Viscount Wimborne. His will was probated in April 1914, provisionally at £250,000. Others of his children included Freddie Guest, a Liberal politician, and Frances, Lady Chelmsford, whose husband Lord Chelmsford served as Viceroy of India.

References

1. "Guest, Ivor Bertie (GST852IB)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
2. The London Gazette: no. 22130. p. 2004. 23 April 1858.
3. The London Gazette: no. 23231. p. 1793. 19 March 1867.
4. Profile, thePeerage.com; accessed 24 March 2016.
5. Canford Tennis Club
6. Blake, Robert; Louis, William Roger, eds. (2002). Churchill. Oxford University Press. p. 15. ISBN 978-0-19-820626-2. Retrieved 2010-06-18.
7. The London Gazette: no. 24838. p. 2725. 27 April 1880. Retrieved 2008-12-11.
8. Craig, F. W. S. (1989) [1977]. British parliamentary election results 1832–1885 (2nd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. p. 526. ISBN 0-900178-26-4.
9. Craig, page 245
10. Craig, page 68
11. 1911encyclopedia.org
12. "Ecclesiastical intelligence" The Times (London). Wednesday, 2 April 1902. (36731), p. 9.
13. Chancellor, E. Beresford (1908). The Private Palaces of London Past and Present. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co Ltd. pp. 366–67. Retrieved 30 June 2015.

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Ivor Guest