View source for George Shaw Lefevre, 1st Baron Eversley

{{Short description|British politician (1831–1928)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2021}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix = [[The Right Honourable]]
| name = The Lord Eversley
| honorific-suffix = {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|PC|DL}}
| image = George Shaw Lefevre, 1st Baron Eversley.png
| imagesize =
| caption =
| order1 = [[First Commissioner of Works]]
| term_start1 = 29 November 1881
| term_end1 = 13 February 1885
| monarch1 = [[Victoria of the United Kingdom|Victoria]]
| primeminister1 = [[William Ewart Gladstone]]
| predecessor1 = [[William Patrick Adam]]
| successor1 = [[The Earl of Rosebery]]
| term_start2 = 18 August 1892
| term_end2 = 10 March 1894
| monarch2 = [[Victoria of the United Kingdom|Victoria]]
| primeminister2 = [[William Ewart Gladstone]]
| predecessor2 = [[David Plunket, 1st Baron Rathmore|Hon. David Plunket]]
| successor2 = [[Herbert Gladstone]]
| order3 = [[Postmaster General of the United Kingdom|Postmaster General]]
| term_start3 = 7 November 1884
| term_end3 = 9 June 1885
| monarch3 = [[Victoria of the United Kingdom|Victoria]]
| primeminister3 = [[William Ewart Gladstone]]
| predecessor3 = [[Henry Fawcett]]
| successor3 = [[Lord John Manners]]
| order4 = [[President of the Local Government Board]]
| term_start4 = 1894
| term_end4 = 21 June 1895
| monarch4 = [[Victoria of the United Kingdom|Victoria]]
| primeminister4 = [[The Earl of Rosebery]]
| predecessor4 = [[Henry Fowler, 1st Viscount Wolverhampton|Henry Fowler]]
| successor4 = [[Henry Chaplin]]
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1831|06|12}}
| birth_place = [[Battersea]]
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1928|04|19|1831|06|12|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Kings Worthy]], [[Hampshire]]
| nationality = [[British people|British]]
| party = [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal Party]]
| alma_mater = [[Trinity College, Cambridge]]
| spouse = Lady Constance Reynolds-Moreton (d. 1929)
}}
'''George John Shaw Lefevre, 1st Baron Eversley''' {{postnominals|country=GBR|PC|DL}} (12 June 1831 – 19 April 1928) was a British [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal Party]] politician. In a ministerial career that spanned thirty years, he was twice [[First Commissioner of Works]] and also served as [[Postmaster General of the United Kingdom|Postmaster General]] and [[President of the Local Government Board]].
==Background and education==
George Shaw Lefevre was the only son of [[Sir John Shaw Lefevre]] and Rachel Emily, daughter of Ichabod Wright. He was born in [[Battersea]], and was the nephew of [[Charles Shaw-Lefevre, 1st Viscount Eversley]], [[Speaker of the House of Commons (United Kingdom)|Speaker of the House of Commons]].<ref>{{cite web|title=George John Shaw-Lefevre, Baron Eversley|url=http://histfam.familysearch.org/getperson.php?personID=I68385&tree=Nixon|work=Family Search: Community Trees|publisher=The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints|access-date=22 November 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131213092751/http://histfam.familysearch.org/getperson.php?personID=I68385&tree=Nixon|archive-date=13 December 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref> He was educated at [[Eton College|Eton]] and at [[Trinity College, Cambridge]],<ref>{{acad|id=SHW849GJ|name=Shaw-Lefevre, George John}}</ref> and was [[called to the Bar]], [[Inner Temple]], in 1855.{{citation needed|date=October 2020}}
==Political career==
Shaw Lefevre stood unsuccessfully as the Liberal candidate for [[Winchester (UK Parliament constituency)|Winchester]] in 1859 but was successfully returned for [[Reading (UK Parliament constituency)|Reading]] in 1863, a seat he held until 1885.<ref name="craig1832-1885">{{cite book
|last=Craig
|first=F. W. S.
|author-link= F. W. S. Craig
|title=British parliamentary election results 1832–1885
|orig-year=1977
|edition= 2nd
|year=1989
|publisher= Parliamentary Research Services
|location=Chichester
|isbn= 0-900178-26-4
|page=251
}}</ref>
his maiden speech in the [[British House of Commons|House of Commons]] was made on the [[CSS Alabama|''Alabama'' incident]], and in 1868 he was instrumental in calling for arbitration of the [[Alabama Claims]].<ref>F.M.G. Willson, ''A Strong Supporting Cast: The Shaw Lefevres 1789–1936'' (London: Athlone Press, 1993), pp. 178, 182–183.</ref> He held cabinet rank under Whig [[John Russell, 1st Earl Russell|Lord Russell]] as [[Civil Lord of the Admiralty]] in 1866, a post he held until the government fell the same year, and later served under [[William Ewart Gladstone]] as [[Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade]] from 1868 to 1871, as [[Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department]] from January to March 1871, as [[Secretary to the Admiralty|Parliamentary Secretary of the Admiralty]] from 1871 to 1874 and again in 1880, after Christmas was sworn of the [[Privy Council (United Kingdom)|Privy Council]].<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=24918 |date=28 December 1880 |page=6969 }}</ref> A successful barrister-at-law, he was appointed a Bencher of the Inner Temple in 1882.{{citation needed|date=October 2020}}
In parliament, the Liberal government made Shaw Lefevre [[First Commissioner of Works]] from 1881 to 1885, before he finally entered Gladstone's cabinet in November 1884 on his appointment to [[Postmaster General of the United Kingdom|Postmaster General]]. He relinquished the post of First Commissioner of Works in February 1885 but continued as Postmaster General until the Liberals lost power in June 1885 to Salisbury's 'Caretaker' ministry.  A general election was called for 27 November 1885, and Shaw Lefevre lost his seat in parliament at the [[1885 United Kingdom general election|1885 general election]], meaning that he did not serve in Gladstone's brief [[Liberal Government 1886|1886 administration]]. He was able to return to the House of Commons in April 1886 when he was elected for [[Bradford Central]] in a by-election, which constituency he represented until 1895.<ref name="craig1885-1918">{{cite book
|last=Craig
|first=F. W. S.
|author-link= F. W. S. Craig
|title=British parliamentary election results 1885–1918
|orig-year=1974
|edition= 2nd
|year=1989
|publisher= Parliamentary Research Services
|location=Chichester
|isbn= 0-900178-27-2
|page=79
}}</ref>
He once again became First Commissioner of Works and a member of Gladstone's cabinet in 1892.  When [[Lord Rosebery]] became Prime Minister in 1894 he was appointed [[President of the Local Government Board]], which he remained until the following year, when the Liberals were again defeated by Lord Salisbury's Conservatives.  In 1897 he was elected a member of the [[London County Council]] as a [[Progressive Party (London)|Progressive]] for the Haggerston Division.<ref>Willson, ''Strong Supporting Cast'', p. 327</ref> In 1906 he was raised to the peerage as '''Baron Eversley''', of Old Ford in the County of London,<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=27933 |date=20 July 1906 |page=4973 }}</ref> a revival of the Eversley title held by his uncle.  He made his last speech in the [[House of Lords]] in 1913.<ref>[https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/people/mr-george-shaw-lefevre/index.html Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) Mr George Shaw-Lefevre]</ref>
==Other public positions==
George was also a Commissioner to negotiate a Convention on Fisheries with French Government in 1858, a member of Sea Fisheries Commission in 1862, President of the [[Statistical Society of London]] between 1878 and 1879 and Chairman of the [[Royal Commission]]s on the Loss of Life at Sea in 1885 and on the [[Royal Commission on the Depressed Condition of the Agricultural Interests (1894–1897)|Agricultural Depression]] between 1893 and 1896. In 1865 he co-founded the [[Commons Preservation Society]], becoming its first chairman and, in 1905, its president.<ref>Lord Eversley, ''Commons, Forests and Footpaths'' (Cassell & Company, 1910), p. v.</ref>
He was elected a [[Fellow of the Royal Society]] in 1899.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://royalsociety.org/dserve/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=Show.tcl&dsqDb=Persons&dsqPos=0&dsqSearch=%28Surname%3D%27shaw-lefevre%27%29|title = Library and Archive catalog|publisher= Royal Society|access-date= 2012-08-03}}</ref>
==Family==
{{Further|Shaw Lefevre}}
George married Lady Constance Moreton, daughter of [[Henry Reynolds-Moreton, 3rd Earl of Ducie]], in 1874. They had no children. He died in April 1928, aged 96, when the barony became extinct. He is buried in the graveyard at St Mary's Church, King's Worthy. Lady Eversley survived him by a year and died in February 1929.{{citation needed|date=October 2020}}
A sister, [[Madeleine Shaw-Lefevre|Madeleine]], was the first Principal of [[Somerville Hall]]; and another Rachel married [[Arthur Hamilton-Gordon]], son of the Prime Minister the [[4th Earl of Aberdeen]].
==Select works==
* {{cite book |last1=Shaw Lefevre |first1=G. |title=The Game Laws |date=1874 |publisher=William Ridgway |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/gamelaws00evergoog/page/n4}}
* {{cite book |last1=Shaw Lefevre |first1=G. |title=English and Irish Land Questions: Collected Essays |date=1881 |publisher=Cassell, Petter, Galpin & co. |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/englishandirish00evergoog/page/n7}}
* {{cite book |last1=Shaw Lefevre |first1=G. |title=Peel and O'Connell; a Review of the Irish Policy of Parliament from the Act of Union to the Death of Sir Robert Peel |date=1887 |publisher=Kegan Paul, Trench & co. |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924028140766/page/n6}}
* {{cite book |last1=Shaw Lefevre |first1=G. |title=Incidents of Coercion: A Journal of Visits to Ireland in 1882 and 1888 |date=1889 |publisher=K. Paul, Trench & Co. |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/incidentscoerci00evergoog/page/n7}}
* {{cite book |last1=Shaw Lefevre |first1=G. |title=Combination and Coercion in Ireland: A Sequel to Incidents of Coercion |date=1890 |publisher=K. Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co. |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/combinationandc00evergoog/page/n7}}
* {{cite book |last1=Shaw Lefevre |first1=G. |title=Agrarian Tenures : a Survey of the Laws and Customs Relating to the Holding of Land in England, Ireland, and Scotland, and of the Reforms Therein During Recent Years |date=1893 |publisher=Cassell & company |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/agrariantenures00unkngoog/page/n7}}
* {{cite book |last1=Shaw Lefevre |first1=G. |title=English Commons and Forests: the Story of the Battle During the Last Thirty Years for Public Rights over the Commons and Forests of England and Wales |date=1894 |publisher=Cassell |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924013714435/page/n6}}
* {{cite book |last1=Lord Eversley |title=Commons, Forests and Footpaths: the Story of the Battle during the Last Forty-Five Years for Public Rights over the Commons, Forests and Footpaths of England and Wales |date=1910 |publisher=Cassell |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/commonsforestsa00evergoog/page/n11}}
* {{cite book |last1=Lord Eversley |title=Gladstone and Ireland: the Irish Policy of Parliament from 1850–1894 |date=1912 |publisher=Methuen |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/3751422/page/n5}}
* {{cite book |last1=Lord Eversley |title=The Partitions of Poland |date=1915 |publisher=T. Fisher Unwin |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924028370306/page/n12}}
* {{cite book |last1=Lord Eversley |title=The Turkish Empire: its Growth and Decay |date=1917 |publisher=T. Fisher Unwin |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/turkishempire00ever/page/n9}}
==Arms==
{{Infobox COA wide
|image = [[File:Coronet of a British Baron.svg|centre|150px]][[File:Eversley (Old Ford) Escutcheon.png|centre|200px]]
|escutcheon = Sable a chevron Argent between two trefoils slipped in chief and a bezant in base surmounted by a cross pattée Or.
|crest = Six arrows interlaced saltirewise three and three Proper within an annulet Or.
|supporters = On either side a man habited as a forester winding a horn Proper.
|motto = Sans Changer<ref>{{cite book|title=Burke's Peerage |date=1914}}</ref>}}
== References ==
{{reflist}}
== External links ==
*{{cite book |last=Hesilrige |first=Arthur G. M. |date=1921| title=Debrett's Peerage and Titles of courtesy| url=https://archive.org/details/debrettspeeraget00unse/page/356 | location=[[London]] |publisher=[[Dean & Son]]|page=356}}
*{{Hansard-contribs | mr-george-shaw-lefevre | George Shaw-Lefevre }}
{{s-start}}
{{s-par|uk}}
{{succession box
| title  = [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] for [[Reading (UK Parliament constituency)|Reading]]
| years  = 1863 – [[1885 United Kingdom general election|1885]]
| with   = [[Sir Francis Goldsmid, 2nd Baronet|Sir Francis Goldsmid, Bt]] to 1878
| with2  = [[George Palmer (businessman)|George Palmer]] from 1878
| before = [[Gillery Piggott]]<br />[[Sir Francis Goldsmid, 2nd Baronet|Sir Francis Goldsmid, Bt]]
| after  = [[Charles Townshend Murdoch]]
}}
{{succession box
| title  = [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] for [[Bradford Central]]
| years  = [[1886 Bradford Central by-election|1886]] – [[1895 United Kingdom general election|1895]]
| before = [[William Edward Forster]]
| after  = [[James Leslie Wanklyn]]
}}
{{s-off}}
{{succession box  | title  = [[Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty|Civil Lord of the Admiralty]]  | years  = 1866 | before = [[Lord John Hay (Royal Navy admiral of the fleet)|Lord John Hay]]  | after  = [[Charles Du Cane]]}}
{{s-new|office}}
{{s-ttl
| title  = [[Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade]]
| years  = 1868–1871
}}
{{s-aft | after  = [[Arthur Peel]]}}
{{succession box  | title  = [[Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department]]  | years  = 1871 | before = [[Edward Knatchbull-Hugessen, 1st Baron Brabourne|Edward Knatchbull-Hugessen]]  | after  = [[Henry Winterbotham]]}}
{{succession box  | title  = [[Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty]]  | years  = 1871–1874 | before = [[William Edward Baxter]] <br /><small>(First Secretary to the Admiralty)</small>  | after  = [[Algernon Egerton|Hon. Algernon Egerton]]}}
{{succession box  | title  = [[Secretary to the Admiralty|Parliamentary Secretary of the Admiralty]]  | years  = 1880 | before = [[Algernon Egerton|Hon. Algernon Egerton]]  | after  = [[Sir George Trevelyan, 2nd Baronet|George Trevelyan]]}}
{{succession box|title=[[First Commissioner of Works]]|before=[[William Patrick Adam]]|after=[[The Earl of Rosebery]]|years=1881–1885}}
{{succession box|title=[[Postmaster General of the United Kingdom|Postmaster General]]|before=[[Henry Fawcett]]|after=[[Lord John Manners]]|years=1884–1885}}
{{succession box|title=[[First Commissioner of Works]]|before=[[David Plunket, 1st Baron Rathmore|Hon. David Plunket]]|after=[[Herbert Gladstone]]|years=1892–1894}}
{{succession box|title=[[President of the Local Government Board]]|before=[[Henry Fowler, 1st Viscount Wolverhampton|Henry Fowler]]|after=[[Henry Chaplin]]|years=1894–1895}}
{{s-reg|uk}}
{{s-new | creation}}
{{s-ttl
| title = [[Baron Eversley]]
| years = 1906–1928
}}
{{s-non | reason = Extinct }}
{{s-end}}
{{Royal Statistical Society presidents}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shaw Lefevre, George}}
[[Category:1831 births]]
[[Category:1928 deaths]]
[[Category:People educated at Eton College]]
[[Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:People from the City of Winchester]]
[[Category:Barons in the Peerage of the United Kingdom|Eversley, George Shaw Lefevre, 1st Baron]]
[[Category:Deputy lieutenants of Hampshire|Eversley, George Shaw Lefevre, 1st Baron]]
[[Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom|Eversley, George Shaw Lefevre, 1st Baron]]
[[Category:Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies]]
[[Category:Lords of the Admiralty|Eversley, George Shaw Lefevre, 1st Baron]]
[[Category:Presidents of the Royal Statistical Society|Eversley, George Shaw Lefevre, 1st Baron]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1859–1865]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1865–1868]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1868–1874]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1874–1880]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1880–1885]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1885–1886]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1886–1892]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1892–1895]]
[[Category:UK MPs who were granted peerages]]
[[Category:Members of London County Council]]
[[Category:Politics of Bradford]]
[[Category:Progressive Party (London) politicians]]
[[Category:Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Reading]]
[[Category:People from Battersea]]
[[Category:Parliamentary Secretaries to the Board of Trade]]
[[Category:Peers created by Edward VII]]