George Jeffreys (politician)

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For other persons named George Jeffreys, see George Jeffreys (disambiguation).

Sir George Darell Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys, DL (8 March 1878 – 19 December 1960) was a British military commander and Conservative politician who served as Member of Parliament for Petersfield in Hampshire from 1941 to 1951.

Jeffreys' father Arthur Frederick Jeffreys had represented Basingstoke in Parliament, and had been admitted to the Privy Council in 1902. George was educated at Eton and Sandhurst. He served in the British Army for 41 years and was mentioned in dispatches nine times during World War I, holding several decorations, including foreign awards. In his long military career, he served with the Grenadier Guards on the Nile expedition, 1898; Khartoum in 1898; the Boer War 1900-1902; the battle of Mons 1914; as Commander of the 2 Bn Grenadier Guards 1915; as Commander, 58 Brigade, 57 Brigade and 1 Guards Brigade 1916-1917; 19 Division 1917-1919; Light Division, Army of the Rhine, Germany 1919; London District 1920-1924; Wessex Area and 43 (Wessex) Division Territorial Army 1926-1930. In 1932, he was appointed as General and Commander-in-Chief of the Southern Command in India until 1936. He retired from the Army in 1938.

Jeffreys was a councillor and alderman of Hampshire County Council from 1926 and was a Deputy Lieutenant of the county. He chaired the Hampshire Territorial Army Association. He won the wartime by-election unopposed in 1941 to become Member of Parliament. After his retirement from the House of Commons in 1951, Jeffreys was awarded a peerage as Baron Jeffreys, of Burkham in the County of Southampton in 1952.

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Sir Reginald Dorman-Smith	Member of Parliament for Petersfield 1941–1951	Succeeded by Peter Legh
Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by New Creation	Baron Jeffreys 1952–1960	Succeeded by Mark Jeffreys