Charles McLaren, 1st Baron Aberconway

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Charles Benjamin Bright McLaren, 1st Baron Aberconway PC (Edinburgh, 12 May 1850 – 23 January 1934, Belgrave Square) was a Scottish Liberal politician and jurist.

Contents 1 Career 2 Family 3 External links 4 References

[edit] Career

The son of Duncan McLaren and Priscilla Bright (sister of John Bright), McLaren was educated at the Heidelberg University, Bonn University and Edinburgh University, from which he graduated with the degree of Master of Arts. He began his career in journalism, but turned to the law and in 1874, he was admitted to Lincoln's Inn as a barrister. Six years later, he was elected to the House of Commons as MP for Stafford; he served that constituency until 1886. In 1892, he returned to the Commons as MP for Bosworth, which he represented until 1910.

McLaren's political career advanced during his second term. In 1897, he was invested a Queen's Counsel, and, in 1902, became Sir Charles McLaren, Baronet of Bodnant, in the county of Denbigh. He was appointed to the Privy Council in 1908, and held the office of Justice of the Peace in Middlesex, Flint, Denbighshire, and Surrey. In 1911, a year after he left the Commons (his son replaced him), he was created Baron Aberconway in the Peerage of the United Kingdom.

His father-in-law, a noted industrialist, died in 1895, and McLaren became increasingly involved in the management of the companies inherited from him. He would become chairman of the Tredegar Iron and Coal Company and several others.

Lord Aberconway received various honours throughout his life, including:

• Order of the Sacred Treasures (Japan) (3rd class)
• Order of Takova (Serbia)
• Commander Order of the Redeemer (Greece).

He and his wife were friends of James McNeill Whistler and owned several of his works.

On his death in 1934 at Bodnant, the barony and baronetcy passed to his eldest son, Henry McLaren.

[edit] Family

On March 6, 1877, he married Laura Elizabeth Pochin (d. 1933), the daughter of Henry Davis Pochin, in Westminster. The couple had four children:

• Henry McLaren, 2nd Baron Aberconway (1879–1953)
• Hon. Florence Priscilla McLaren (1881–1964), married Sir Henry Norman, 1st Baronet
• Hon. Elsie Dorothea McLaren (c.1884 – 15 May 1973), married Sir Edward Johnson-Ferguson, 2nd Baronet
• Lt. Hon. Francis Walter Stafford McLaren (June 16, 1886 – 30 August 1917), married Barbara Jekyll and had issue

[edit] External links

• Picture at his daughter's wedding
• National Portrait Gallery

[edit] References

• thePeerage.com
• Friendship with Whistler

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by: Thomas Salt Alexander MacDonald	Member of Parliament for Stafford with Alexander Macdonald 1880–1881, Thomas Salt 1881–1885 1880–1886	Succeeded by: Thomas Salt
Preceded by: James Ellis	Member of Parliament for Bosworth 1892–December 1910	Succeeded by: Henry McLaren
Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by: (new creation)	Baron Aberconway 1911–1934	Succeeded by: Henry McLaren
Preceded by: (new creation)	Baronet (of Bodnant, Denbigh) 1902–1934	Succeeded by: Henry McLaren