Sir George Trevelyan, 2nd Baronet

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The Right Honourable
 Sir George Otto Trevelyan, 2nd Baronet, OM,DC, LLD, DL
Sir George Trevelyan, 2nd Baronet
In office
18 December 1868 – 12 July 1870
Preceded by Frederick Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby
Succeeded by Robert Haldane-Duncan, 3rd Earl of Camperdown
In office
1865 – 1868
Preceded by Richard Hodgson
Succeeded by Thomas Eustace Smith
In office
1868 – 1886
Succeeded by Alexander Laing Brown
In office
1887 – 1897
Preceded by Sir Edward Richard Russell
Succeeded by Sir Charles Cameron
Born July 20, 1838(1838-07-20)
Flag of England Edinburgh, England
Died August 17, 1928 (aged 90)

Sir George Otto Trevelyan, 2nd Baronet OM,DC, LLD, DL, was a British statesman and author was born in Rothley Temple, Leicestershire, and the only son of Sir Charles Trevelyan and Hannah Moore Macaulay.
Hannah was the daughter of Zachary Macaulay, secretary of the Anti-Slavery Society and the sister of British historian Thomas Macaulay.


Contents

[edit] Education

He was educated at Harrow and at Trinity College, Cambridge where he was President of the Cambridge Union Society, and earned 2nd place in the first class of the Classical Tripos in 1861. That same year he wrote his Horace at the University of Athens, a topical drama in verse, parts of which are said to have offended Whewell and lost Trevelyan a fellowship.

[edit] Office

In 1862 he went out as a civil servant to India, where he spent several years. During his stay he contributed "Letters of a Competition Wallah" to Macmillan's Magazine (republished 1864). Cawnpore, an account of that terrible tragedy, was published in 1865. During the same year he was elected as a Liberal MP for Tynemouth. In 1867 he wrote The Ladies in Parliament, a humorous political brochure in verse. At the general election of 1868 he was returned for the Hawick Burghs, which he continued to represent until 1886.
When the first Gladstone Ministry was formed, in December 1868, Trevelyan was appointed Civil Lord of the Admiralty, but resigned in July 1870 on a point of conscience connected with the government Education Bill. He advocated a sweeping reform of the army, including the abolition of the purchase of commissions, and both in and out of parliament he was the foremost supporter for many years of the extension of the county franchise. In the session of 1874 he brought forward his Household Franchise (Counties) Bill, which was lost on the second reading; it was not till ten years later that the agricultural laborer was enfranchized. Among other causes which he warmly supported were women's suffrage, a thorough reform of metropolitan local government, and the drastic reform or abolition of the House of Lords. He was also in favour of the direct veto and other temperance legislation. In 1876 he published The Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay, and in 1880 he published The Early History of Charles James Fox. In the latter year he was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty. This office he held until May 1882, when, after the assassination of Lord Frederick Cavendish, he became for two years Chief Secretary for Ireland and was appointed to the Privy Council. From November 1884 to June 1885 he was Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. In February 1886 he became Secretary for Scotland, but resigned in March over Home Rule. The same year he succeeded his father in the baronetcy. At the general election of 1886 Sir George Trevelyan lost his seat for Hawick. As a representative of the Liberal Unionist party he took part in the Round Table Conference, and, being satisfied with the modifications made by Gladstone in his Home Rule scheme, he formally rejoined the Liberal party. In August 1887 he re-entered the House of Commons as member for Glasgow Bridgeton; and from 1892 to 1895 he was again Secretary for Scotland. Early in 1897 he resigned his seat in parliament and retired into private life.

[edit] Retirement

In 1899 he published the first volume of a History of the American Revolution, which was completed (3 vols.) in 1905; in the latter year, as Interludes in Prose and Verse, he republished his early classical jeux d'esprit and Indian pieces. He had married in 1869 Caroline Philips, whose father Mark Philips was MP for Bury. His eldest son, Charles Philips Trevelyan (b. 1870), became Liberal M.P. for the Elland division of Yorkshire in 1899, and in 1908 was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education. The second son was R. C. Trevelyan, the artist. The third son, George Macaulay Trevelyan (b. 1876), became well known as a brilliant historical writer, notably with two books on Garibaldi (1907 and 1909) and his Life of John Bright (1911).

[edit] Honours

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Richard Hodgson		 Member of Parliament for Tynemouth and North Shields
1865–1868		 Succeeded by
Thomas Eustace Smith
Preceded by
(new constituency)		 Member of Parliament for Hawick Burghs
1868–1886		 Succeeded by
Alexander Laing Brown
Preceded by
Sir Edward Richard Russell		 Member of Parliament for Glasgow Bridgeton
1887–1897		 Succeeded by
Sir Charles Cameron
Political offices
Preceded by
Lord Frederick Cavendish		 Chief Secretary for Ireland
1882–1884		 Succeeded by
Henry Campbell-Bannerman
Preceded by
John George Dodson		 Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
1884–1885		 Succeeded by
Henry Chaplin
Preceded by
The Duke of Richmond		 Secretary for Scotland
1886		 Succeeded by
The Earl of Dalhousie
Preceded by
The Marquess of Lothian		 Secretary for Scotland
1892–1895		 Succeeded by
The Lord Balfour of Burleigh
Baronetage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Charles Trevelyan		 Baronet
(of Wallington)
1886–1928		 Succeeded by
Charles Trevelyan