Frederick Leveson-Gower

Hon. Edward Frederick Leveson-Gower DL, JP (3 May 1819 – 30 May 1907),

Early life Leveson-Gower was the third son and youngest child of Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Earl Granville and his wife Lady Harriet Elizabeth Cavendish, second daughter of Lady Georgiana Spencer and William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire.

His eldest brother, Granville, succeeded their father as earl, while his other brother, William, died at age 16 following several years of paralysis. His sisters were the novelist Lady Georgiana Fullerton and Lady Susan, the wife of George Pitt-Rivers, 4th Baron Rivers.

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. From 1851, he worked as précis writer in the Foreign Office until the following year,

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. They had two children, one surviving:

Unnamed daughter (8 February 1854), stillborn at 145 Piccadilly Sir George Granville Leveson-Gower (1858–1951), M.P. for North West Staffordshire and also for Stoke-upon-Trent. He married the Hon. Adelaide Violet Cicely Monson, daughter of Debonnaire John Monson, 8th Baron Monson.

Three days after the birth of their son, Lady Margaret died of measles contracted during her pregnancy, aged 28.

Leveson-Gower never remarried and died in 1907, aged 88, having been in his later life a friend of William Ewart Gladstone and his wife.