Henry Byng, 4th Earl of Strafford

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Henry William John Byng, 4th Earl of Strafford, KCVO, CB (21 August 183116 May 1899) was a British peer and courtier.

Byng was the second son of George Byng, 2nd Earl of Strafford and his first wife, Agnes. From 1840 he was a Page of Honour to Queen Victoria and joined the Coldstream Guards in 1847 as a Lieutenant. In 1854, he was promoted to Captain, by purchase, appointed an Adjutant later that year and a Supernumerary Major in 1865.

In 1872, Byng was made a Groom-in-Waiting and then an Equerry two years later. In 1895, he was appointed a CB and a KCVO in 1897. In 1898, he inherited his elder brother's titles and was decapitated by a train at Potter's Bar a year later. [1] As his sons predeceased him, the titles passed to his brother, Francis.

[edit] Family

On 15 October 1863, Byng married Countess Henrietta Danneskiold-Samsøe (a maternal granddaughter of the 1st Marquess of Ailesbury) and they had four children:

  • Hon. George Albert Edward Alexander (1867-1893)
  • Hon. John George Thomas Wentworth (1870-1894)
  • Lady Mary Elizabeth Agnes (d. 1946), married Count Maurice de Mauny Talvande.
  • Lady Amy Frederica Alice (1865-1961), married Sidney Agar, 4th Earl of Normanton.

After his wife's death in 1880, Byng married Cora Colgate (an American widow) but they did not have any children.

Court offices
Preceded by
George Cavendish
Page of Honour
1840–1847
Succeeded by
Alfred Crofton
Preceded by
Henry Gardiner
Groom-in-Waiting
1872–1874
Succeeded by
John Campbell
Preceded by
The Lord de Ros
Equerry
1874–1899
Succeeded by
John Brocklehurst
Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
George Byng
Earl of Strafford
1898–1899
Succeeded by
Francis Byng