Aretas Akers-Douglas, 1st Viscount Chilston

Aretas Akers-Douglas, 1st Viscount Chilston, GBE PC (October 21, 1851–January 15, 1926), born Aretas Akers, was a British Conservative statesman and politician.

Born in West Malling, Kent, of which his father was parson, he was educated at Eton and University College, Oxford, before being called to the bar in 1875. That same year he took the additional surname of Douglas under royal licence in accordance with a relative's will.

In 1880, Akers-Douglas was returned to the House of Commons as Conservative representative for East Kent, and five years later he exchanged this seat for that of the St Augustine's Division in the same county. In 1883, he was appointed whip to the Conservatives, and in 1885, he became Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury, and retained this post (with a short interval in 1886 when Gladstone returned to power) for the next seven years.

In 1895, Akers-Douglas was appointed First Commissioner of Works, with a seat in the Cabinet. Seven years later, when Arthur Balfour became Prime Minister, he became Home Secretary, and resigned three and a half years later when the Liberals took power. In 1911, he was created Viscount Chilston, of Boughton Malherbe in the County of Kent, and Baron Douglas of Baads, of Baads in the County of Midlothian.

During the First World War, Lord Chilston was Chief County Director for the British Red Cross Society and St John Ambulance, in recognition of which he was appointed Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE) in the 1920 civilian war honours. He died six years later at his London home and was buried at Boughton Malherbe, Kent.

References

*Biography, "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography"