The Right Honourable The Earl of Jersey GCB GCMG PC JP DL |
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The Earl of Jersey by H. Newman, courtesy of the National Library of Australia.
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Paymaster-General | |
In office 1889 – December 1890 |
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Monarch | Queen Victoria |
Prime Minister | The Marquess of Salisbury |
Preceded by | The Earl Brownlow |
Succeeded by | The Lord Windsor |
17th Governor of New South Wales | |
In office January 1891 – March 1893 |
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Monarch | Victoria |
Preceded by | The Lord Carrington |
Succeeded by | Robert Duff |
Personal details | |
Born |
Berkeley Square, London |
20 March 1845
Died | 31 May 1915 Osterley Park, Middlesex |
(aged 70)
Nationality | British |
Political party | Conservative |
Spouse(s) | Dame Margaret Child Villiers (née Leigh; 1849-1945), Countess of Jersey (m. 1872-1915; his death) |
Alma mater | Balliol College, Oxford |
Victor Albert George Child Villiers, 7th Earl of Jersey GCB GCMG PC JP DL (20 March 1845 – 31 May 1915), was a British banker, Conservative politician and colonial administrator from the Villiers family. He served as Governor of New South Wales between 1891 and 1893.
Born at Berkeley Square, London, Lord Jersey was the eldest son of George Child Villiers, 6th Earl of Jersey, and Julia Peel, daughter of Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel, Bt. He was educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford. He succeeded in the earldom in October 1859, aged 14, on the death of his father, who had only succeeded his father three weeks earlier. He became the principal proprietor of the family banking firm of Child & Co.
Lord Jersey served as a Lord-in-Waiting (government whip in the House of Lords) between 1875 and 1877 in the Conservative administration of Benjamin Disraeli. He returned to the government in 1889 when Lord Salisbury made him Paymaster-General, which he remained until 1890. The latter year he was sworn of the Privy Council and made a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG).