Earl Farquhar

The Right Honourable The Earl Farquhar GCB GCVO PC
"Horace". Lord Farquhar as caricatured by Spy (Leslie Ward) in Vanity Fair, June 1898
Lord Steward of the Household
In office 9 June 1915 – 19 October 1922
Monarch	George V
Prime Minister	H. H. Asquith David Lloyd George
Preceded by	The Earl of Chesterfield
Succeeded by	The Earl of Shaftesbury
Personal details
Born	19 May 1844 Goldings, near Hertford, Hertfordshire
Died	30 August 1923(1923-08-30) (aged 79) Grosvenor Square, Mayfair, London
Nationality	British
Political party	Conservative
Spouse(s)	Emily Packe (d. 1922)

Horace Brand Farquhar, 1st Earl Farquhar GCB GCVO PC (19 May 1844 – 30 August 1923), was a British financier, courtier and Conservative politician.

Townsend-Farquhar was born at Goldings near Hertford, the fifth of six sons of Sir Minto Townsend-Farquhar, 2nd Baronet, by his wife Erica Mackay, the only (but illegitimate) daughter of Eric Mackay, 7th Lord Reay. He later adopted the surname of Farquhar only. From 14 August 1877, when Sir Robert Townsend-Farquhar, 6th Baronet, his elder brother, succeeded as sixth baronet, to his death he was heir presumptive to the baronetcy.

The Farquhar family, though distinguished, were not rich, and Farquhar began his career as a clerk in a government office. However, he soon joined Forbes, Forbes and Co., a company involved in the trade with India, of which he rose to become manager. The Forbeses were family friends of the Farquhars, and introduced Farquhar to the circle of the Prince of Wales. Farquhar later left Forbes's to become a partner and large shareholder in Sir Samuel Scott, bart and Co., a private bank. At this time he was a friend of Lord Macduff, who succeeded as sixth Earl Fife in 1879, and when that nobleman sold much of his Scottish estates he invested the proceeds in Scott's bank. It was through Fife's influence that Farquhar became a member of the board of the British South Africa Company, despite the presence of a huge conflict of interests as Farquhar was also chairman and a substantial shareholder in the Exploration Company, supported by the Rothschilds which was seeking mining rights in land controlled by the BSAC. Farquhar, along with several others connected with the BSAC, was later obliged to resign after the Jameson Raid. By this time he had made for himself a considerable name in the City; he oversaw the merger of Scott's with Parrs Banking Company and joined the board of Parrs in 1894. On 5 January 1895 he married Emilie, daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Packe, Grenadier Guards, of Hurleston in Northamptonshire and Twyford Hall in Norfolk, and widow since 1883 of Sir Edward Henry Scott, 5th Baronet, of the banking family. This marriage brought him a fortune. They had no children; Lady Farquhar died on 6 April 1922.