George Villiers, 6th Earl of Clarendon

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George Herbert Hyde Villiers, 6th Earl of Clarendon KG, PC (June 7, 1877 – December 13, 1955), known as Lord Hyde from 1877 to 1914, was a British Conservative politician. He served as Governor-General of the Union of South Africa from 1931 to 1937.

Clarendon was the only son of Edward Hyde Villiers, 5th Earl of Clarendon and his wife Lady Caroline Elizabeth Agar, daughter of James Agar, 3rd Earl of Normanton. George William Frederick Villiers, 4th Earl of Clarendon, three times Foreign Secretary, was his grandfather. Clarendon took his seat on the Conservative benches in the House of Lords on his father's death in 1914. When Andrew Bonar Law became Prime Minister in 1922 he appointed Clarendon Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (government chief whip in the House of Lords), a position he also held under Stanley Baldwin until January 1924, and again from December 1924 to 1925. He then served as the first Under-Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs until 1927. In 1931 Clarendon was appointed Governor-General of South Africa, in which position he remained until 1937. He later held the court position of Lord Chamberlain of the Household between 1938 to 1952. He was admitted to the Privy Council in 1931 and made a Knight of the Garter in 1937.

Lord Clarendon married Adeline Verena Ishbel Cocks, daughter of Herbert Haldane Somers Cocks, in 1905. He died in December 1955, aged 78. His eldest son George Villiers, Lord Hyde, had been killed in a shooting accident in 1935 and he was succeeded in the earldom by his grandson George Frederick Laurence Hyde Villiers.

[edit] Commemorations

Clarendon High School for Girls and its associated schools, Clarendon Primary School and Clarendon Preparatory School in East London, South Africa are named after him.^[1]

[edit] References

Political offices
Preceded by The Lord Ransborough	Lord-in-Waiting 1921–1922	Succeeded by New government
Preceded by The Lord Colebrooke	Captain of the Gentlemen-at-Arms 1922–1924	Succeeded by The Earl of Dunmore
Preceded by The Lord Colebrooke and The Lord Hylton	Government Chief Whip in the House of Lords 1922–1924	Succeeded by The Lord Muir-Mackenzie
Preceded by The Earl of Dunmore	Captain of the Gentlemen-at-Arms 1924–1925	Succeeded by The Earl of Plymouth
Preceded by The Lord Muir-Mackenzie	Government Chief Whip in the House of Lords 1924–1925
First	Under-Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs 1925–1927	Succeeded by The Lord Lovat
Preceded by The Earl of Athlone	Governor-General of South Africa 1931–1937	Succeeded by Sir Patrick Duncan
Preceded by The Earl of Cromer	Lord Chamberlain 1938–1952	Succeeded by The Earl of Scarbrough
Media offices
Preceded by Joseph Albert Pease	Chairman of the BBC Board of Governors 1927 - 1930	Succeeded by John Henry Whitley
Peerage of Great Britain
Preceded by Edward Villiers	Earl of Clarendon 1914–1955	Succeeded by George Villiers

v • d • e Governors-General of the Union of South Africa The Viscount Gladstone · The Viscount Buxton · HRH Prince Arthur of Connaught · The Earl of Athlone · The Earl of Clarendon · Sir Patrick Duncan · Nicolaas Jacobus de Wet · Gideon Brand van Zyl · Ernest George Jansen · Lucas Cornelius Steyn · Charles Robberts Swart