Robert Fulke Greville

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Hon. Robert Fulke Greville (3 February 1751 - 27 April 1824) was a British Member of Parliament (MP) and courtier.

The son of Francis Greville, 1st Earl of Warwick and Elizabeth Hamilton, and brother to Charles Francis Greville, he was educated at Edinburgh University. He was commissioned as a Cornet in the 10th Dragoons in 1768, and promoted to Lieutenant in 1772; he became a Captain in the 1st Foot Guards in 1775 and Lieutenant-Colonel in 1777. He was Member of Parliament for Warwick from 1774 to 1780, supporting the Tory government of Lord North, and for New Windsor from 1796 to 1806.

Greville served as Equerry to King George III from 1781 to 1797 and Groom of the Bedchamber from 1800 to 1818. His diaries give remarkable insight into the King's illness and recovery from porphyria. They also record the King's 1794 season at Weymouth in considerable detail. He hence appears as a character in the play The Madness of George III and its film adaptation, played in the latter by Rupert Graves.

On 19 October 1797, he married Louisa Cathcart, daughter of Charles Schaw Cathcart, 9th Lord Cathcart and Jane Hamilton, and widow to David Murray, 2nd Earl of Mansfield. His son and namesake attempted to make improvements to the port of Milford Haven which his uncle, Charles Greville, had founded.

[edit] Links

[edit] Works

  • F. McNko Bladon (ed) 1930. The Diaries of Colonel The Hon. Robert Fulke Greville, Equerry to His Majesty George III. John Lane The Bodley Head, London.
  • Lewis Namier & John Brooke, The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1754-1790 (London: HMSO, 1964)


Parliament of Great Britain
Preceded by
Hon. Charles Greville
Paul Methuen
Member of Parliament for Warwick
with Hon. Charles Greville

1774–1780
Succeeded by
Hon. Charles Greville
Robert Ladbroke
Preceded by
The Earl of Mornington
William Grant
Member of Parliament for New Windsor
with Henry Isherwood 1796-1797
Sir William Johnston 1797-1800

1796–1800
Succeeded by
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Parliament of Great Britain
Member of Parliament for New Windsor
with Sir William Johnston 1801-1802
John Williams 1802-1804
Arthur Vansittart 1804-1806

1801–1806
Succeeded by
Edward Disbrowe
Richard Ramsbottom