Frederick William Verney

Frederick William Verney (26 February 1846 – 26 April 1913) was a younger son of the long-established Verney family in Buckinghamshire. He became a Church of England clergyman, a barrister, a Siamese diplomat, and a Liberal Party politician, serving as a member of both the Buckinghamshire and London County Councils, and from 1906 to 1910 as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Buckingham.

Verney was the youngest of four sons of Sir Harry Verney, 2nd Baronet and his first wife Eliza Hope, daughter of Admiral Sir George Hope-Vere. His father had been born Harry Calvert, inheriting the baronetcy from his father General Sir Harry Calvert, 1st Baronet, and had changed his surname to Verney in 1827 when he inherited the Verney family's estate in Aylesbury Vale, Buckinghamshire, including the John Adam-designed Claydon House. Sir Harry was a Liberal MP for a total of over 35 years.

Frederick was educated at Harrow and then at Christ Church, Oxford. He first became a Church of England clergyman for three years, serving as secretary and chaplain to the Archbishop of York, William Thomson, but gave up the church in 1873, and after training as a barrister he was called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1875. In 1883 he took up the post of English Secretary and Counsellor to the legation in London of Siam, which was at that time a buffer state between the parts of South of Asia controlled by France and those under British rule. The Kingdom of Siam honoured him for his diplomatic services by appointing him as a Commander of the Most Exalted Order of the White Elephant.

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