William Grenfell, 1st Baron Desborough

William Henry Grenfell, 1st Baron Desborough, KG, GCVO, (October 30, 1855 – January 9, 1945) was an athlete, sportsman, public servant and a Liberal Party politician who left to join the Conservatives.

His father was Charles William Grenfell, former member of parliament for Sandwich, while his uncle was Henry Riversdale Grenfell, the banker and politician. He was educated at Harrow School, and Balliol College, Oxford and was the Member of Parliament for Salisbury and later for Hereford City. Politically, he was a Gladstonian Liberal, but he resigned in 1893 rather than support Gladstone's Second Irish Home Rule Bill. He returned to the House of Commons in 1900 as a Conservative. Socially, he and his wife became members of the elite and aristocratic group, the 'Souls'.

In 1905, he was raised to the peerage as Baron Desborough, of Taplow, a title he took from the old hundred of Desborough in Buckinghamshire.

He was a man of wide ranging sporting achievement and public service. He rowed for Oxford, and was president both of the Oxford University Boat Club and of the Athletic Club. He later became a steward of Henley Royal Regatta. He also enjoyed mountaineering, swimming, fishing and big-game hunting. He swam the Niagara rapids twice, climbed the Matterhorn three times, rowed across the English Channel and was Amateur Punting Champion of the Upper Thames. He was President of the Amateur Fencing Association, Marylebone Cricket Club, and the Lawn Tennis Association. In 1908, he was president of the Olympic games held in London.

During a long career dedicated to public service, he was President of the Thames Conservancy Board (thirty-two years), the London Chamber of Commerce, and the Royal Agricultural Society, amongst many others. He was High Steward of Maidenhead, the nearest town to his home at Taplow Court, Taplow. He performed many good deeds for the town, including the donation of an old chalk pit for use as a park, to celebrate the diamond jubilee of Queen Victoria. Grenfell Park contains many unusual trees, the seeds of which were collected by Lord Desborough as he travelled the world.

He was appointed CVO in 1907 and advanced to KCVO in 1908 and GCVO in 1925; and in 1928 he was admitted as a Knight of the Order of the Garter. From 1924 to 1929 he was Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard. Between 1919 and 1929 he was chairman of the Pilgrims of Great Britain. He planned and oversaw the construction of a channel in the Thames between Walton-on-Thames and Weybridge, named the Desborough Cut after him. He married Ethel Fane, granddaughter of John Fane, 11th Earl of Westmorland, in 1887: they had three sons and two daughters. His eldest son was the poet Julian Grenfell, who was killed in action in 1915. His second son, Gerald William Grenfell, was also killed about two months after his elder brother. His third son, Ivo George Grenfell, died in 1926 as the result of a car accident.

Lord Desborough had the unfortunate distinction of having his obituary erroneously published on 2 December 1920 in The Times which had confused him with Lord Bessborough.

See also

* Taplow Court
* Stické

References

* Paul Goldsack, "River Thames:in the footsteps of the famous", (2003)

External links

* [http://grenfell.history.users.btopenworld.com/Biographies/william_henry_grenfell.htm William Henry Grenfell] at Grenfell family history site