Victor Spencer, 1st Viscount Churchill

Major The Right Honourable The Viscount Churchill GCVO JP
The Viscount Churchill by Leslie Ward, 1904.
Lord-in-Waiting
In office 1889–1892
Preceded by	The Earl of Hopetoun
Succeeded by	The Lord Playfair
In office 1895–1905
Preceded by	The Lord Camoys
Succeeded by	The Lord Denman
Personal details
Born	23 October 1864
Died	3 January 1934 (aged 69)
Spouse(s)	Lady Verena Maud Lowther Christine McRae Sinclair

Major Victor Albert Francis Charles Spencer, 1st Viscount Churchill GCVO JP (23 October 1864 – 3 January 1934), known as Victor Albert Spencer until 1886 and as The Lord Churchill between 1886 and 1902, was a British peer and courtier.

Background

Spencer was born at 32, Albemarle Street, London, the son of Francis Spencer, 2nd Baron Churchill, and his wife Jane. He was a Page of Honour to Queen Victoria from 1876 to 1881, and in 1886 he succeeded to his father's title of Baron Churchill.

Educated at Eton College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, he was commissioned into the Coldstream Guards.^[1]

Political career

Spencer was a Lord in Waiting from 1889 to 1892 and 1895 to 1905 in both of Salisbury's governments and was created Viscount Churchill, of Rolleston, in the County of Leicester, on 15 July 1902^[2] (it had already been announced in the Coronation Honours list that he would be created a Viscount^[3]). He was also chairman and director of several transport companies, including the Great Western Railway 1908-34 and was the longest serving chairman of the company,^[1] the British India Steamship Company, P&O and the Grand Union Canal.

Honours

British honours

• GCVO: Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order

Foreign honours

•  Kingdom of Prussia: Knight 1st class of the Order of the Crown - 1899 - in connection with the visit of Emperor Wilhelm II to the United Kingdom.^[4]

Family

Lord Churchill married Lady Verena Maud Lowther, daughter of Henry Lowther, 3rd Earl of Lonsdale, at Cottesmore, Rutland, on 1 January 1887. They had four children. The couple were divorced in 1927. Churchill married as his second wife Christine McRae Sinclair. They had two children. He died of pneumonia on 3 January 1934.^[1]

References

1. http://www.greatwestern.org.uk
2. The London Gazette: no. 27455. p. 4586. 18 July 1902.
3. "The Coronation Honours". The Times (36804). London. 26 June 1902. p. 5.
4. "Court Circular". The Times (36068). London. 17 February 1900. p. 11.

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Viscount Churchill