George William Coventry, 9th Earl of Coventry, PC, DL (9 May 1838 – 13 March 1930), styled Viscount Deerhurst from November 1838 until 1843, was a British Conservative politician. He was Captain of the Gentlemen-at-Arms between 1877 and 1880 and again between 1885 and 1886 as well as Master of the Buckhounds between 1886 and 1892 and again between 1895 and 1901.
Early life
Coventry was born on 9 May 1838 at Wilton Crescent, London. He was the son of George William Coventry, Viscount Deerhurst, and the former Harriett Anne Cockerell. His elder sister, Lady Maria Emma Catherine Coventry, was the wife of Hon. Gerald Henry Brabazon Ponsonby (the youngest son of John Ponsonby, 4th Earl of Bessborough).[1]
The Earl was also interested in the development of agriculture and maintained a paternalistic attitude toward his tenants. He established a jam factory in order to provide them with a local outlet for their fruit although this proved unable to compete with larger-scale commercial competitors and went into liquidation in 1908.[8]
George William Coventry, Viscount Deerhurst (1865–1927), who married the American-born Virginia Lee Bonynge (nee Daniel), daughter of William Daniel who was adopted by Charles William Bonynge.[9]
Hon. Henry Thomas Coventry (1868–1934), who also played first-class cricket;[11] he married Edith (née Kip) McCreery, daughter of Col. Lawrence Kip and Eva Lorillard, in 1907.[2]
Hon. Sir Reginald William Coventry (1869–1940), who married Gwenllian Pascoe Morgan, daughter of Edward Vaughan Morgan, in 1911. After her death in 1925, he married Frances Constance Jones, daughter of Charles Gwillim Jones, in 1926.[2]
Lady Barbara Elizabeth Coventry (1870–1946), who married Gerald Dudley Smith, son of Dudley Robert Smith, in 1894.[2]
Hon. William Francis Coventry (1875–1937), who died unmarried.[2]
Hon. Thomas George Coventry (1885–1972), who married Alice Ward, daughter of Thomas Ward, in 1910. They divorced around 1930.[2]
Lord Coventry died on 13 March 1930, aged 91,[12] and was succeeded in the earldom by his grandson George, the son of George William Coventry, Viscount Deerhurst.[9] Lady Coventry survived her husband by only three days and died on 16 March 1930, aged 87.[2]
References
^G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume III, page 475-476.
^Hammond, Peter W., editor, The Complete Peerage or a History of the House of Lords and All its Members From the Earliest Times, Volume XIV: Addenda & Corrigenda (Stroud, Gloucestershire, U.K.: Sutton Publishing, 1998), page 212.
