Granville Leveson-Gower, 3rd Earl Granville

Granville George Leveson-Gower, 3rd Earl Granville GCMG GCVO PC (4 March 1872 – 21 July 1939) was a British diplomat from the Leveson-Gower family who was envoy to several countries.

Career

The elder son of the 2nd Earl Granville, Leveson-Gower was educated at Eton College and joined the Diplomatic Service in 1893 as an attaché in Berlin. He served in Cairo, Vienna, The Hague and Brussels, then was appointed back to Berlin with the rank of Counsellor in 1911. In 1913 he was appointed to Paris, again as counsellor, and moved to Bordeaux when the French government relocated there in September 1914 as the German army approached the capital before the First Battle of the Marne.

On 1 January 1917 he was appointed Diplomatic Agent to the Greek provisional government of Eleftherios Venizelos in Salonika,[1] shortly afterwards formalised as Minister Plenipotentiary.[2]

In June 1917, King Constantine abdicated, the previous British Minister to the Greek Government, Sir Francis Elliot, departed and Granville became official Minister to Greece in Athens.[3] He was Minister to Denmark 1921–26,[4] Minister to the Netherlands 1926–28[5] and Ambassador to Belgium and Luxembourg 1928–33.[6]

As a Privy Counsellor, Earl Granville took part in the official procedures legalising the accession of King Edward VIII[7] in 1936 and, later that year, his abdication and the accession of King George VI.[8]

Honours

Earl Granville was appointed MVO in 1904,[9] raised to CVO in 1913 on the occasion of King George V's visit to Berlin,[10] and knighted GCVO in the King's Birthday Honours of 1914.[11] He was given the additional, senior knighthood of KCMG in the New Year Honours of 1924[12] and raised to GCMG in 1932.

He was made a Privy Counsellor in 1928.[13] The King of Belgium awarded him the Order of Leopold.[14]

He had also been a Lord-in-waiting to Queen Victoria in 1895,[15] to King Edward VII from 1905–10 and to King George V from 1910–15.

Family

On 27 September 1900, he had married Nina Ayesha Baring (daughter of the diplomat Walter Baring, and son of Sir Francis Baring, 1st Baronet) but died without issue and his titles passed to his brother William.

References

• GRANVILLE, 3rd Earl, Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007
• Lord Granville (obituary), The Times, London, 22 July 1939, page 14

1. "British Diplomatic Agent At Salonika – Lord Granville Appointed", The Times (London), 2 January 1917, p. 8
2. "No. 29896". The London Gazette. 9 January 1917. p. 376.
3. New Minister to Greece: Earl Granville Appointed, The Times, London, 23 August 1917, page 5
4. "No. 32540". The London Gazette. 6 December 1921. p. 9888.
5. "No. 33230". The London Gazette. 17 December 1926. p. 8268.
6. "No. 33417". The London Gazette. 31 August 1928. p. 5767.
7. "No. 34245". The London Gazette (Supplement). 21 January 1936. p. 449.
8. "No. 34350". The London Gazette. 15 December 1936. p. 8113.
9. "No. 27704". The London Gazette. 12 August 1904. p. 5192.
10. "No. 28723". The London Gazette. 30 May 1913. p. 3832.
11. "No. 28842". The London Gazette (Supplement). 22 June 1914. p. 4879.
12. "No. 32893". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 January 1924. p. 5.
13. "No. 33403". The London Gazette. 13 June 1928. p. 4721.
14. Mosley, Charles (ed.) Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 2003, vol.2, page 1639
15. "No. 26595". The London Gazette. 5 February 1895. p. 683.

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Earl Granville
• Portraits of Granville George Leveson-Gower, 3rd Earl of Granville (1872-1939), Diplomat at the National Portrait Gallery, London