William Lygon, 7th Earl Beauchamp
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William Lygon, 7th Earl Beauchamp, (February 20, 1872 - November 15, 1938), British politician, succeeded his father as Earl Beauchamp in 1891, and was mayor of Worcester at age 23. A progressive in his ideas, he was surprised to be offered the post of Governor of New South Wales in May 1899. Though good at the job, he was unpopular in the colony, and Beauchamp returned to Britain in 1900, where he joined the Liberal Party.
Beauchamp was Lord Steward of the Household to King Edward VII and was made a Privy Counsellor in 1906. He served in the Liberal Government as Lord President of the Council from June to November 1910, First Commissioner of Works from 1910 to 1914, Lord President again from 1914 to 1915 and was Liberal Leader in the House of Lords from 1924, supporting the failing party with his substantial fortune.
Beauchamp was made Lord Lieutenant of Worcestershire in 1911, carried the Sword of State at the coronation of King George V, was made Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports in 1913 and a Knight of the Garter in 1914. He was also Chancellor of London University, a Six Master (Governor of RGS Worcester) and Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms.
In 1931, he was "outed" as a homosexual to the King and Queen by his violently Tory brother-in-law, the Duke of Westminster, who hoped to ruin the Liberal Party through Beauchamp. Homosexuality was a criminal offence at the time, and the King was horrified, saying "I thought men like that shot themselves." There was no public scandal, but Lord Beauchamp resigned all his offices, except the Wardenship of the Cinque Ports, and went into exile on the Continent. He died of cancer in New York, aged 66.
Lord Beauchamp is generally supposed to have been the model for Lord Marchmain in Evelyn Waugh's novel Brideshead Revisited.
| Preceded by: The Viscount Hampden | Governor of New South Wales 1899–1901 | Succeeded by: Sir Harry Rawson | |||
| Preceded by: The Lord Belper | Captain of the Gentlemen-at-Arms 1905–1907 | Succeeded by: The Lord Denman | |||
| Preceded by: The Earl of Liverpool | Lord Steward 1907–1910 | Succeeded by: The Earl of Chesterfield | |||
| Preceded by: The Viscount Wolverhampton | Lord President of the Council 1910 | Succeeded by: The Viscount Morley of Blackburn | |||
| Preceded by: The Earl Brassey | Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports 1913–1934 | Succeeded by: The Marquess of Reading | |||
| Preceded by: The Viscount Morley of Blackburn | Lord President of the Council 1914–1915 | Succeeded by: The Marquess of Crewe
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