George Sholto Gordon Douglas-Pennant, 2nd Baron Penrhyn

George Sholto Gordon Douglas-Pennant, 2nd Baron Penrhyn (30 September 1836 – 10 March 1907), was a landowner who played a prominent part in the Welsh slate industry as the owner of the Penrhyn Quarry in North Wales.

He was born at Linton Springs, Yorkshire, on 30 September 1836. He was the elder son of Edward Gordon Douglas (1800–1886), third son of John Douglas, second son of George Douglas, 16th Earl of Morton. His mother, his father's first wife, was Juliana Isabella Mary (died 1842), eldest daughter and co-heiress of George Hay Dawkins-Pennant of Penrhyn Castle. In 1841, the father, whose wife inherited vast property in North Wales, assumed the additional surname of Pennant by royal licence, and was raised to the peerage as Baron Penrhyn on 3 August 1866.

George was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford. A project of entering the army was abandoned in deference to his father's wishes, but he always interested himself in military affairs. He was major of the Carnarvonshire rifles and honorary colonel of the 4th battalion of Royal Welsh Fusiliers. In 1866, he was elected Conservative Member of Parliament for Caernarvonshire, and held the seat until 1868. He was again elected in 1874, but was defeated in 1880 by Watkin Williams, Q.C.

He succeeded to the peerage on his father's death in 1886. Thenceforth he devoted the greater part of his time and energies to the management of the large property which came to the family through his mother. The Penrhyn estate contained no less than 26,278 acres, with a rent-roll of £67,000, and the family owned the Bethesda slate quarries which, when fully employed and in former times of good trade, were estimated to produce £150,000 a year.

In his later years his father had allowed much of the management of the Bethesda slate quarries to pass into the hands of an elective committee of the men, with the result that they were in 1885 on the verge of bankruptcy. In that year, the son George had been entrusted with full powers to reform their administration. One of his first actions was to repudiate the authority of the workmen's committee. Under fresh and strenuous management the quarries once again became busy and prosperous. A great strike began in 1897. Lord Penrhyn replied by closing the quarries, and an angry debate took place in the House of Commons. But Lord Penrhyn would abate none of his conditions, and the men capitulated.

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