Gerald Balfour, 2nd Earl of Balfour

Gerald William Balfour, 2nd Earl of Balfour, PC (9 April 1853 – 14 January 1945), known as Gerald Balfour or The Rt Hon. G. W. Balfour until 1930, was a senior British Conservative politician who became a peer on the death of his brother, former prime minister Arthur Balfour, in 1930.

Background and education Balfour was born in Edinburgh on 9 April 1853, the fourth son of James Maitland Balfour, of Whittingehame, Haddingtonshire, and Lady Blanche Cecil, daughter of James Gascoyne-Cecil, 2nd Marquess of Salisbury. Two Prime Ministers were immediate relations: Arthur Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour, his elder brother, and Lord Salisbury, his uncle. He was educated at Eton and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he gained 1st Class Honours in the Classical Tripos.

Political career Balfour sat as Conservative Member of Parliament for Leeds Central from 1885 to 1906.

Balfour was interested in parapsychology. He was President of the Society for Psychical Research (1906–1907).

Marriage and children Lord Balfour married Lady Elizabeth Edith "Betty" Bulwer-Lytton, daughter of the 1st Earl of Lytton, former Viceroy of India, in 1887. They had six children:

Lady Eleanor Balfour (1890 – d. after 1980) Lady Ruth Balfour (d. 30 August 1967) Mary Edith Balfour (21 January 1894 – 1980) Lady Evelyn Barbara "Eve" Balfour (16 July 1898 – 1990) Robert Arthur Lytton Balfour, 3rd Earl of Balfour (31 December 1902 – 28 November 1968) Lady Kathleen Constance Blanche Balfour (1912 – 20 August 1996).

An affair with Welsh Liberal politician Winifred Coombe Tennant resulted in a further child, Augustus Henry.

The Countess of Balfour died in 1942, aged 74. Lord Balfour survived her by three years and died at Whittingehame on 14 January 1945, aged 91, by which time he was the last surviving member of any of long-serving prime minister Salisbury's cabinets.