British nobleman and politician
Richard William Alan Onslow, 5th Earl of Onslow
GBE
GCStJ
PC
DL
(23 August 1876 – 9 June 1945), styled
Viscount Cranley
until 1911, was a British
peer
, diplomat, parliamentary secretary and government minister.
Background and education
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Viscount Cranley was the eldest son of
William Onslow, 4th Earl of Onslow
, and Florence Coulston Gardner. He was educated at
Eton
and
New College, Oxford
before joining the
Diplomatic Service
in 1901.
Diplomatic career
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He became an
attache
to
Madrid
a year later,
Third Secretary
to
Tangier
in 1903 and to
St Petersburg
in 1904 and
Second Secretary
to
Berlin
in 1907. In 1909, he became assistant private secretary to
Sir Edward Grey
, the
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
. He then held a number of positions in the
Foreign Office
as a clerk in 1910, private secretary to the
Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
from 1911 to 1913 and assistant clerk from 1913 to 1914.
Military career
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Onslow joined the army on the outbreak of
World War I
in 1914, being commissioned as a second lieutenant on 15 June 1915.
[1]
He was
mentioned in despatches
three times, received an
OBE
and the French
Legion of Honour
. In later years he was honorary lieutenant-colonel of the 3rd Battalion
Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey)
and honorary colonel of the
30th (Surrey) Searchlight Regiment, Royal Artillery
.
[2]
[3]
Political career
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Onslow had succeeded to his father's title and seat in the
House of Lords
in 1911. After the war, he was a
Lord-in-waiting
from 1919 to 1920, a
Civil Lord of the Admiralty
from 1920 to 1921,
Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries
in 1921,
Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health
from 1921 to 1923,
Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education
from 1923 to 1924,
Under-Secretary of State for War
and vice-president of the
Army Council
from 1924 to 1928, and chairman of the Committees and Deputy Speaker of the
House of Lords
from 1931 to 1944.
Onslow was also
president of the Royal Statistical Society
from 1905 to 1906
[4]
and president of the
Zoological Society of London
from 1936 to 1942.
[5]
Onslow was the donor of 6 acres (2.4 ha) of land at the top of
Stag Hill, Guildford
in 1933 on which
Guildford Cathedral
was built.
[6]
Writings
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Onslow devoted much of his retirement to writing, producing
The Empress Maud
(1939);
Sixty-three Years: Diplomacy, the Great War and Politics, with Notes on Travel, Sport and Other Things
(1939), which went through several editions; and
The Dukes of Normandy and Their Origin
(1945), which was completed in the year of his death and published posthumously.
Family
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Lord Onslow married Violet Marcia Catherine Warwick Bampfylde, the only daughter of
Coplestone Bampfylde, 3rd Baron Poltimore
, on 22 February 1906. They had two children:
Lord Onslow died on 9 June 1945, aged 68, and was succeeded in the peerage by his only son.
As Dowager Countess of Onslow, Violet gave the future
Queen Elizabeth II
a diamond and ruby butterfly brooch as a wedding gift in 1947.
[7]
She died on 23 October 1954.
References
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