The Right Honourable The Earl of Selborne KG GCMG PC |
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The Earl of Selborne by Leslie Ward, 1901.
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First Lord of the Admiralty | |
In office 12 November 1900 – 27 March 1905 |
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Monarch |
Queen Victoria Edward VII |
Prime Minister | The Marquess of Salisbury |
Preceded by | George Goschen |
Succeeded by | The Earl Cawdor |
2nd High Commissioner to South Africa | |
In office May 1905 – May 1910 |
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Monarch | Edward VII |
Preceded by | The Viscount Milner |
Succeeded by | Hon. Sir Walter Hely-Hutchinson |
President of the Board of Agriculture | |
In office 25 May 1915 – 11 July 1916 |
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Monarch | George V |
Prime Minister | H. H. Asquith |
Preceded by | The Lord Lucas of Crudwell |
Succeeded by | The Earl of Crawford |
Personal details | |
Born | 17 October 1859 |
Died | 26 February 1942 (aged 82) |
Nationality | British |
Political party |
Liberal Liberal Unionist |
Spouse(s) | Lady Beatrix Maud Gascoyne-Cecil (d. 1950) |
Alma mater | University College, Oxford |
William Waldegrave Palmer, 2nd Earl of Selborne KG GCMG PC (17 October 1859 – 26 February 1942), styled Viscount Wolmer between 1882 and 1895, was a British politician and colonial administrator.
Selborne was the son of Lord Chancellor Roundell Palmer, 1st Earl of Selborne, and Lady Laura, daughter of Vice-Admiral William Waldegrave, 8th Earl Waldegrave. He was educated at Temple Grove School,Winchester and University College, Oxford, where he took a first class degree in history.
Selborne was assistant private secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Hugh Childers, from 1882 to 1885, when he was elected Liberal Member of Parliament for East Hampshire. Like his father, he became a Liberal Unionist in 1886 when William Ewart Gladstone proposed Irish Home Rule. He retained his seat till 1892, when he was elected for Edinburgh West. In 1895 he was appointed Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies by his father-in-law Lord Salisbury, where he became junior to the Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain. During the difficult period before the outbreak of the Second Boer War he progressed rapidly.