The Viscount Ullswater | |
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![]() Portrait by Philip de László, c. 1905 | |
Speaker of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom | |
In office 8 June 1905 –28 April 1921 | |
Monarchs | |
Preceded by | Sir William Gully |
Succeeded by | J. H. Whitley |
Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons Chairman of Ways and Means | |
In office 1895 –June 1905 | |
Monarchs | |
Preceded by | John William Mellor |
Succeeded by | Sir John Lawson |
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs | |
In office 22 September 1891 –18 August 1892 | |
Monarch | Victoria |
Prime Minister | The Marquess of Salisbury |
Preceded by | Sir James Fergusson |
Succeeded by | Sir Edward Grey |
Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal | |
In office 8 July 1921 –27 March 1949 Hereditary Peerage | |
Preceded by | Peerage created |
Succeeded by | The 2nd Viscount Ullswater |
Member of Parliament for Penrith and Cockermouth | |
In office 14 December 1918 –13 May 1921 | |
Preceded by | constituency established |
Succeeded by | Cecil Lowther |
Member of Parliament for Penrith | |
In office 27 July 1886 –14 December 1918 | |
Preceded by | Henry Howard |
Succeeded by | constituency abolished |
Member of Parliament for Rutland | |
In office 1 September 1883 –18 December 1885 | |
Preceded by | Gerard Noel |
Succeeded by | George Finch |
Personal details | |
Born | 1 April 1855 |
Died | 27 March 1949 93) | (aged
Nationality | British |
Political party | Conservative |
Spouse | Mary Beresford-Hope (d. 1944) |
Alma mater | King's College London Trinity College,Cambridge |
James William Lowther,1st Viscount Ullswater, GCB , PC , JP , DL (1 April 1855 –27 March 1949),was a British Conservative politician. He was Speaker of the House of Commons between 1905 and 1921. He was the longest-serving Speaker of the 20th century.
The son of Hon. William Lowther,a grandson of William Lowther,1st Earl of Lonsdale and for 25 years Member of Parliament for Westmorland,and Alice,3rd daughter of James Parke,1st Baron Wensleydale,Lowther was educated at Eton College,King's College London where he took an Associateship degree,and at Trinity College,Cambridge,where he studied classics and law. [1] Lowther became a barrister in 1879,eventually becoming a Bencher of the Inner Temple in 1906.
He was Member of Parliament for Rutland in 1883;contested Mid Cumberland in 1885;and sat for Penrith from 1886 to 1921. He was appointed 4th Charity Commissioner in 1887,and held junior ministerial office as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs from 1891 to 1892. He was Chairman of Ways and Means and Deputy Speaker from 1895 to 1905 and Speaker of the House of Commons from 1905 to 1921.
There are three golden rules for Parliamentary speakers: Stand up. Speak up. Shut up.
— J. W. Lowther, 1917
Lowther represented Great Britain at the International Conference at Venice in 1892, and at the International Conference on Emigration at Rome in 1924. He was Chairman of the Speakers' Electoral Reform Conference in 1916–1917, of the Buckingham Palace Conference (on the partition of Ulster) in 1914, of the Boundary Commissions (Great Britain and Ireland) in 1917, of the Royal Commission on Proportional Representation in 1918, Devolution Conference in 1919, of the Royal Commission on London Government, 1921–1922; of Review Committee Political Honours, 1923–1924, and Statutory Commission on Cambridge University, 1923; of the Agricultural Wages Board from 1930 to 1940; of the Lords and Commons Committee on Electoral Reform, 1929–1930; and of BBC Enquiry Committee, 1935. He was a Trustee of the British Museum from 1922 to 1931 and a Trustee of the National Portrait Gallery from 1925. In 1907 his portrait was painted by Philip de Laszlo.
He was appointed to the Privy Council in 1898, created 1st Viscount Ullswater, of Campsea Ashe, in the County of Suffolk, on his retirement as Speaker in 1921, [2] and appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB) in July 1921. [3] He also held the degrees of DCL from the University of Oxford, LL.D from the University of Cambridge and DCL from the University of Leeds.
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On 1 March 1886, Lowther married Mary Frances Beresford-Hope (d. 16 May 1944). They had three children:[ citation needed ]
He was succeeded to the viscountcy by his great-grandson.
Arthur Wellesley Peel, 1st Viscount Peel,, was a British Liberal politician, who sat in the House of Commons from 1865 to 1895. He was Speaker of the House of Commons from 1884 until 1895, when he was raised to the peerage.
Earl of Lonsdale is a title that has been created twice in British history, firstly in the Peerage of Great Britain in 1784, and then in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in 1807, both times for members of the Lowther family.
Viscount Ullswater, of Campsea Ashe in the County of Suffolk, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1921 for James Lowther upon his retirement as Speaker of the House of Commons. He was the eldest son of the Hon. William Lowther, third son of the Hon. Henry Lowther, second son of William Lowther, 1st Earl of Lonsdale. The first Viscount lived to the age of 93, and was pre-deceased by both his eldest son the Hon. Christopher Lowther, a Conservative politician, and his eldest son's eldest son John Arthur Lowther (1910–1942), the title being inherited by his seven-year-old great-grandson, the second and current Viscount, in an extremely rare instance of a great-grandson succeeding his great-grandfather in a peerage. The second Viscount held office in the Conservative administrations of Margaret Thatcher and John Major and since 2003 he has been one of the ninety elected hereditary peers that remain in the House of Lords after the passing of the House of Lords Act 1999.
Nicholas James Christopher Lowther, 2nd Viscount Ullswater, is a British hereditary peer and former member of the House of Lords who sat as a Conservative. He succeeded his great-grandfather in the viscountcy of Ullswater in 1949, being one of very few peers to have succeeded a great-grandfather in a title.
Charles Hardinge, 1st Baron Hardinge of Penshurst, was a British diplomat and statesman who served as Viceroy and Governor-General of India from 1910 to 1916.
There have been seven baronetcies created for members of the Lowther family, one in the Baronetage of Nova Scotia, two in the Baronetage of England, two in the Baronetage of Great Britain and two in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom. Two of the creations are extant as of 2008.
Baron Beresford is a title that was created three times for the Beresford family, one in the Peerage of Ireland and later also two in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. In all instances it was created for men who were eminent politicians or soldiers. The first creation still exists as a subsidiary title, but the latter two became extinct at the death of their original holder.
James Lowther, 1st Earl of Lonsdale was an English country landowner and politician who sat in the House of Commons for 27 years from 1757 to 1784, when he was raised to the Peerage of Great Britain as Earl of Lonsdale.
Campsea Ashe is a village in Suffolk, England located approximately 5 miles (8 km) north east of Woodbridge and 6 miles (10 km) south west of Saxmundham.
John Andrew Hamilton, 1st Viscount Sumner, was a British lawyer and judge. He was appointed a judge of the High Court of Justice in 1909, a Lord Justice of Appeal in 1912 and a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary in 1913. Created a life peer as Baron Sumner in 1913, he was further honoured when he was granted a hereditary peerage as Viscount Sumner in 1927.
James Lowther may refer to:
William Lowther JP DL was a British diplomat and Conservative politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1868 to 1892.
Major General Sir (Henry) Cecil Lowther, was a British general and Conservative politician, big-game hunter and adventurer.
Major the Hon. Christopher William Lowther was a British Conservative Party politician, the elder son of James Lowther, 1st Viscount Ullswater.
Lancelot Edward Lowther, 6th Earl of Lonsdale, OBE, DL was an English peer, the fourth and youngest son of Henry Lowther, 3rd Earl of Lonsdale.
James Hugh William Lowther, 7th Earl of Lonsdale, was a British peer.
Sir Gerard Augustus Lowther, 1st Baronet, was a British diplomat.
This article summarises the relationships between various members of the family of Lowther baronets.
The 1921 Penrith and Cockermouth by-election was a parliamentary by-election held for the British House of Commons constituency of Penrith and Cockermouth in Cumberland on 13 May 1921.