George Byng, 2nd Earl of Strafford
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George Stevens Byng, 2nd Earl of Strafford, PC (8 June 1806–29 October 1886) was a British peer and politician.
Byng was the eldest son of John Byng (later 1st Earl of Strafford) and his wife, Mary. In 1822, after graduating from the Royal Military College, he joined the 29th Regiment of Foot as an ensign by purchase. In 1825, he transffered to the 85th Regiment of Foot as a Lieutenant and was promoted to Captain in 1826.
Byng's political career began in 1830 when he was elected as Member of Parliament for Milborne Port, a seat he briefly held before taking the post of Comptroller of the Household to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland (his father-in-law), less than a year later. When his former co-MP, William Sturges-Bourne, took the Chiltern Hundreds a few weeks after, Byng returned to his former seat and held it until the Great Reform Bill abolished the constituency a year later. From 1834 he was MP for the new constituency of Chatham before taking the post of Comptroller of the Household in 1835, and held the seat again from 1837-52. He was also briefly Treasurer of the Household in 1841 and Joint Secretary to the Board of Control from 1846-47.
After losing his parliamentary seat in 1852, Byng was called up to the House of Lords in his father's barony of Strafford a year later and inherited his father's earldom in 1860. On his death in 1886, his titles passed to his eldest son, George.
[edit] Family
On 7 March 1829, Byng married Lady Agnes Paget (a daughter of the 1st Marquess of Anglesey) and they had six children:
- George Henry Charles, styled Viscount Enfield, later 3rd Earl of Strafford (1830-1898)
- Hon. Henry William John, later 4th Earl of Strafford (1831-1899)
- Hon. Francis Edmund Cecil, later 5th Earl of Stafford (1835-1918)
- Lady Agnes Mary Georgiana (1833-1878), married Hedworth Jolliffe, 2nd Baron Hylton.
- Lady Mary Caroline Charlotte (1838-1933), married Richard Arkwright.
- Lady Victoria Alexandrina Anna Maria (d. 1899), married Arthur Fuller.
After the death of his wife in 1845, Byng married Hon. Harriett Cavendish (a daughter of the 1st Baron Chesham) and they had seven children:
- Hon. Charles Cavendish George (1849-1918)
- Hon Alfred John George (1851-1887)
- Hon. Lionel Francis George (1858-1915)
- Hon. Julian Hedworth George, later 1st Viscount Byng of Vimy (1862-1935)
- Lady Susan Catherine Harriet (d. 1936), married Thomas Trueman.
- Lady Elizabeth Henrietta Alice (d. 1920)
- Lady Margaret Florence Lucy (d. 1945), married Hon. John Richard Boscawen .
