Frederick Leveson-Gower (Bodmin)

Edward Frederick Leveson-Gower DL, JP (3 May 1819 – 30 May 1907), styled The Honourable from birth, was a British barrister and Liberal politician. He was commonly known under his second surname and was sometimes nicknamed Freddy Leveson.

Background and education

Leveson-Gower was the second surviving son of Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Earl Granville and his wife Lady Harriet Elizabeth Cavendish, second daughter of William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire. He spent his early childhood, first in his father's residence at Wherstead, and when his father had become ambassador in France in 1824, at the British embassy in Paris, where he was a playmate of Henri, comte de Chambord. Aged eight, he was sent back to England on a school in Brighton, after which he entered Eton College. Leveson-Gower left the latter in 1835 and was privately educated for the next two years, until he went on Christ Church, Oxford in 1837. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1840 and a Master of Arts four years later. After his Grand Tour, he was then called to the bar by the Inner Temple in 1845, practising in the Oxford circuit.

Career

Leveson-Gower entered the British House of Commons for Derby with the support of his uncle William Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire in May 1847. However, the election was overturned on petition in July and Leveson-Gower did not stand in the by-election. From 1851, he worked as précis writer in the Foreign Office until the following year, when by the influence of his cousin George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 2nd Duke of Sutherland, he stood successfully as a Member of Parliament (MP) for Stoke-upon-Trent, a seat he lost in the general election of 1857. Two years later, he was returned for Bodmin and represented the constituency until his retirement from politics in 1885. Leveson-Gower was a Justice of the Peace for Surrey and served as a Deputy Lieutenant for the county.

Personal life

Having travelled to India in 1850, Leveson-Gower, after his return, married Lady Margaret Compton, daughter of Spencer Compton, 2nd Marquess of Northampton on 1 June 1851. She died only a few years later. Their only son George sat later in the Parliament of the United Kingdom for North West Staffordshire and also for Stoke-upon-Trent. In 1856, Leveson-Gower joined his brother Granville on a special mission to Russia. He died in 1907, aged 88, having been in his later life a friend of William Ewart Gladstone and his wife.

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Edward Levenson-Gower
• Portraits of (Edward) Frederick Leveson-Gower at the National Portrait Gallery, London

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by John Ponsonby Edward Strutt	Member of Parliament for Derby May – July 1847 With: Edward Strutt	Succeeded by Michael Thomas Bass Lawrence Heyworth
Preceded by William Taylor Copeland John Ricardo	Member of Parliament for Stoke-upon-Trent 1852 – 1857 With: John Ricardo	Succeeded by William Taylor Copeland John Ricardo
Preceded by Hon. John Vivian James Wyld	Member of Parliament for Bodmin 1859 – 1885 With: William Michell 1859 James Wyld 1859–1868	Succeeded by Leonard Henry Courtney