Gerald Balfour, 2nd Earl of Balfour

Gerald William Balfour, 2nd Earl of Balfour PC (9 April 1853 - 14 January 1945) was a British nobleman and Conservative politician.

The fourth son of James Maitland Balfour, Whittingehame, Haddingtonshire and Lady Blanche Cecil, daughter of 2nd Marquess of Salisbury, he was educated at Eton College and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he gained 1st Class Honours in the Classical Tripos. In 1887 he married Lady Betty, daughter of 1st Earl of Lytton, and had one son and five daughters.

He sat as Conservative Member of Parliament for Leeds Central from 1885-1906. During this time he was a member of Commission on Labour, and Private Secretary to his brother Arthur Balfour, when he was President of the Local Government Board in 1885-1886. He later served as Chief Secretary for Ireland from 1895-1900, as President of the Board of Trade from 1900-1905 and as President of the Local Government Board from 1905-1906. On retiring from the House of Commons, he was Chairman of the Commission on Lighthouse Administration in 1908, and Chairman of the Cambridge Committee of the Commission on Oxford and Cambridge Universities. He received an Honorary LLD from Cambridge University, and was a Fellow of Trinity.

He succeeded his brother Arthur Balfour to the Earldom in 1930.

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by new constituency	Member of Parliament for Leeds Central 1885–1906	Succeeded by Robert Armitage
Political offices
Preceded by John Morley	Chief Secretary for Ireland 1895-1900	Succeeded by George Wyndham
Preceded by Charles Thomson Ritchie	President of the Board of Trade 1900-1905	Succeeded by James Gascoyne-Cecil
Preceded by Walter Hume Long	President of the Local Government Board 1905-1906	Succeeded by John Burns
Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Arthur Balfour	Earl of Balfour 1930-1945	Succeeded by Robert Balfour