George Boscawen, 9th Viscount Falmouth

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The Right Honourable
The Viscount Falmouth
DL
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
In office
18 February 1962 – 11 November 1999
as a hereditary peer
Preceded by
Succeeded bySeat abolished
Personal details
Born
George Hugh Boscawen

(1919-10-31) 31 October 1919 (age 102)
NationalityBritish
Political partyConservative
Spouse(s)
Elizabeth Price Browne
​
​
(m. 1953; died 2007)​
Parent(s)Evelyn Hugh John Boscawen and Mary Margaret Desiree Meynell
EducationEton College
Alma materTrinity College, Cambridge
Military career
Allegiance United Kingdom
Service/branch British Army
Years of service1939–1946
RankCaptain
UnitColdstream Guards
Battles/wars
AwardsMentioned in dispatches

George Hugh Boscawen, 9th Viscount Falmouth, DL (born 31 October 1919), is a British peer and landowner. His subsidiary titles include Baron Le Despencer (created 1264) and Baron Boscawen-Rose. A former officer in the Coldstream Guards, he was Lord Lieutenant of Cornwall from 1977 to 1994.

Life[]

Boscawen was the second son of Evelyn Hugh John Boscawen, 8th Viscount Falmouth, by his marriage to Mary Margaret Desiree, daughter of Hon. Frederick George Lindley Meynell (né Wood; in 1905 he assumed part of the married name of his sister, Emily Meynell Ingram, on inheriting estates from her),[1] High Sheriff of Staffordshire in 1910, son of the politician Charles Wood, 1st Viscount Halifax. Mary's mother, Lady Mary Susan Felice, was daughter of the art collector and historian Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford.[2]

Like his younger brother Robert, he was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, and from 1939 to 1946 served in the Coldstream Guards. Commissioned a second lieutenant on 2 November 1940, he was promoted war-substantive lieutenant on 2 May 1942.[3] On 21 May 1940, Boscawen's elder brother, Hon. Evelyn Frederick Vere Boscawen, also a Coldstream Guards officer, was killed in action, leaving him as heir to the family titles and estates.[4] During the Second World War he saw active service in Italy,[5] for which he was mentioned in dispatches.[6]

In 1962, he succeeded as Viscount Falmouth on the death of his father. In 1968, he was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant for Cornwall, then in 1977 became the county's Lord Lieutenant, retiring only in 1994 on reaching the age of seventy-five.[5]

In 1982, as chairman of the governing body of Truro Cathedral School, Falmouth took the decision to close the school, because of "deteriorating finances". In a letter to parents he stated that this decision had been taken "with very great reluctance, after exploring all possible alternatives".[7]

Family[]

Boscawen married Elizabeth Price Browne (1925 – 28 July 2007) who was a Deputy Lieutenant for Cornwall and an Officer of the Order of the British Empire; on 9 May 1953. They have four sons:

  • Hon. Evelyn Arthur Hugh Boscawen (13 May 1955) he married Lucia Vivian-Neal on 23 July 1977 and they were divorced in 1995. They have two children and two grandsons. He remarried Katherine Helen Maley on 7 October 1995. They have three children.
  • Hon. Nicholas John Boscawen (14 January 1957) he married Virginia Mary Rose Beare, daughter of Robin Beare, in 1985. They have two daughters.
  • Hon. Charles Richard Boscawen (10 October 1958) he married Frances Diana Rous, daughter of Major Hon. George Nathaniel Rous, in 1985. They have three children.
  • Hon. Vere George Boscawen (18 September 1964) he married Catharine Halliday on 11 May 1991. They have three children.

His heir is his oldest son, the Hon Evelyn George Boscawen. All three generations, grandfather, father and son, are Etonians and live on and manage the Tregothnan estate.[8]

Notes[]

  1. ^ Meynell Family Papers. <corpname>Meynell family of Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire</corpname>. 1316–1942.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date format (link) CS1 maint: others (link)
  2. ^ Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 107th ed., Burke's Peerage Ltd, 2003, vol. 1, p. 955, vol. 2, p. 1728.
  3. ^ The Quarterly Army List (January-March 1946, Part I). London: HM Stationery Office. 1946. p. 708f.
  4. ^ Charles Mosley, ed., Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, vol. 1 (2003), p. 1387.
  5. ^ a b 'Falmouth, 9th Viscount (born 31 Oct. 1919), Lord-Lieutenant of Cornwall, 1977–94' in Who's Who 2003 (London: A. & C. Black, 2003), p. 692.
  6. ^ "No. 37368". The London Gazette (Supplement). 27 November 1945. p. 5807.
  7. ^ The Times, issue 61211 dated Monday, 19 April 1982, p. 10.
  8. ^ "The Elite". The Guardian. 11 April 1999. Retrieved 7 July 2019.
Honorary titles
Preceded by Lord Lieutenant of Cornwall
1977–1994 		Succeeded by
Peerage of Great Britain
Preceded by
 Viscount Falmouth
1962–present
Member of the House of Lords
(1962–1999) 		Incumbent
Heir apparent:
Hon. Evelyn Boscawen
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