George Shaw Lefevre, 1st Baron Eversley

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.

The Right Honourable The Lord Eversley PC DL
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	(1831-06-12)12 June 1831 Battersea
Died	19 April 1928(1928-04-19) (aged 96) Kings Worthy, Hampshire
Nationality	British
Political party	Liberal Party
Spouse	Lady Constance Reynolds-Moreton (d. 1929)
Alma mater	Trinity College, Cambridge

Background and education

George Shaw Lefevre 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.^{[citation needed]}

Political career

Shaw Lefevre stood unsuccessfully as the Liberal candidate for Winchester in 1859 but was successfully returned for Reading in 1863, a seat he held until 1885.^[3] his maiden speech in the House of Commons was made on the Alabama incident, and in 1868 he was instrumental in calling for arbitration of the Alabama Claims.^[4] 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.^{[citation needed]}

In parliament, the Liberal government made Shaw Lefevre 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 27 November 1885, and Shaw Lefevre lost his seat in parliament at the 1885 general election, meaning that he did not serve in Gladstone's brief 1886 administration. 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 a Progressive for the Haggerston Division.^[7] In 1906 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Eversley, of Old Ford in the County of London,^[8] a revival of the Eversley title held by his uncle. He made his last speech in the House of Lords in 1913.^[9]

Other public positions

George 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.^[10]

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1899.^[11]

Family

Further information: Shaw Lefevre

George 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.^{[citation needed]}

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

Select works

• Shaw Lefevre, G. (1874). The Game Laws. London: William Ridgway.
• Shaw Lefevre, G. (1881). English and Irish Land Questions: Collected Essays. London: Cassell, Petter, Galpin & co.
• Shaw Lefevre, G. (1887). Peel and O'Connell; a Review of the Irish Policy of Parliament from the Act of Union to the Death of Sir Robert Peel. London: Kegan Paul, Trench & co.
• Shaw Lefevre, G. (1889). Incidents of Coercion: A Journal of Visits to Ireland in 1882 and 1888. London: K. Paul, Trench & Co.
• Shaw Lefevre, G. (1890). Combination and Coercion in Ireland: A Sequel to Incidents of Coercion. London: K. Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co.
• Shaw Lefevre, G. (1893). Agrarian Tenures : a Survey of the Laws and Customs Relating to the Holding of Land in England, Ireland, and Scotland, and of the Reforms Therein During Recent Years. London: Cassell & company.
• Shaw Lefevre, G. (1894). English Commons and Forests: the Story of the Battle During the Last Thirty Years for Public Rights over the Commons and Forests of England and Wales. London: Cassell.
• Lord Eversley (1910). Commons, Forests and Footpaths: the Story of the Battle during the Last Forty-Five Years for Public Rights over the Commons, Forests and Footpaths of England and Wales. London: Cassell.
• Lord Eversley (1912). Gladstone and Ireland: the Irish Policy of Parliament from 1850-1894. London: Methuen.
• Lord Eversley (1915). The Partitions of Poland. London: T. Fisher Unwin.
• Lord Eversley (1917). The Turkish Empire: its Growth and Decay. London: T. Fisher Unwin.

Arms

Coat of arms of George Shaw Lefevre, 1st Baron Eversley

Crest Six arrows interlaced saltirewise three and three Proper within an annulet Or. Escutcheon Sable a chevron Argent between two trefoils slipped in chief and a bezant in base surmounted by a cross pattée Or. Supporters On either side a man habited as a forester winding a horn Proper. Motto Sans Changer[12]

References

1. "George John Shaw-Lefevre, Baron Eversley". Family Search: Community Trees. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Archived from the original on 13 December 2013. Retrieved 22 November 2012.
2. "Shaw-Lefevre, George John (SHW849GJ)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
3. 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.
4. F.M.G. Willson, A Strong Supporting Cast: The Shaw Lefevres 1789-1936 (London: Athlone Press, 1993), pp. 178, 182-183.
5. "No. 24918". The London Gazette. 28 December 1880. p. 6969.
6. 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.
7. Willson, Strong Supporting Cast, p. 327
8. "No. 27933". The London Gazette. 20 July 1906. p. 4973.
9. Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) Mr George Shaw-Lefevre
10. Lord Eversley, Commons, Forests and Footpaths (Cassell & Company, 1910), p. v.
11. "Library and Archive catalog". Royal Society. Retrieved 3 August 2012.
12. Burke's Peerage. 1914.

External links

• Hesilrige, Arthur G. M. (1921). Debrett's Peerage and Titles of courtesy. London: Dean & Son. p. 356.
• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by George Shaw-Lefevre

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
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