Sir George Sitwell, 4th Baronet

Sir George Reresby Sitwell, 4th Baronet, (London, 17 January 1860 – Locarno, 9 July 1943) succeeded his father as 4th Baronet at the age of two.

Educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, he contested Scarborough seven times as a Conservative and was the constituency's Member of Parliament (MP) from 1885 to 1886 and from 1892 to 1895. A keen antiquarian, he worked on the Sacheverell papers, and wrote a biography of his ancestor, William Sacheverell and published The Letters of the Sitwells and Sacheverells. His collection of books and papers are said to have filled seven sitting-rooms at the family house, Renishaw Hall, in Derbyshire. He researched genealogy and heraldry, and was a keen designer of gardens, studying garden design in Italy.

In 1909 he purchased the Castello di Montegufoni, near Florence, then a wreck inhabited by three hundred peasants. Over the next three decades he restored it to its original design, and took up permanent residence there in 1925, writing to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Chancellor of the Exchequer to explain that taxes has forced him to settle in Italy.

Sitwell married, in 1886, Ida Emily Augusta Denison, daughter of William Henry Forester Denison, 2nd Baron Londesborough (later 1st Earl of Londesborough). In 1913 he refused to pay off her many creditors, and saw her prosecuted and imprisoned for three months. He remained in Italy at the outbreak of war, but in 1942 moved to Switzerland and died at Locarno on 9 July 1943.

He was succeeded by his elder son Osbert, who described him vividly in his five volume autobiography. Sir George's other two children were the writers Edith and Sacheverell Sitwell.

References

*Rayment

External links

* [http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/01/12/1041990178094.html Eccentric patriarch with slender grip on reality]
* [http://www.sitwell.co.uk/sitwell_history.htm Renishaw Hall - History of the Sitwells]
* [http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=35&prgDate=12-15-2007&view=storyview Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me - December 15th, 2007]

Sir George was the subject of the first question in the show's "Not My Job" segment.

Comedian and impressionist Frank Caliendo plays a game called "You're Oliver St. John-Mollusc, Eighth Lord of Cladham." Three questions about eccentric British Lords, taken from an article in Vanity Fair.

Frank Caliendo was asked

Sir George Raresby Sitwell, son of Sir Sitwell Sitwell, was known back in the early 20th Century for his unusual inventions including which of these? Was it A) a small pistol for shooting wasps B) a steel hat to protect the wearer from suddenly falling trees C) spring loaded pants to help the wearer rise to his feet. It was actually the pistol for shooting wasps. He was known as an eccentric, he had a sign posted outside his estate it said, "I must ask anyone entering the house never to contradict me or differ from me in any way, as it interferes with the functioning of my gastric juices and prevents my sleeping at night."