[1st Viscount]. English politician and man of business, born at Uxbridge on the 1st of September 1856, and educated at Cranleigh school. He entered the firm of Kearley & Tonge, tea merchants and shippers, of London and Calcutta, subsequently becoming senior partner. In 1892 he entered Parliament as Liberal member for Devonport, and from 1905 to 1909 was parliamentary secretary to the Board of Trade. In 1908 he was created a baronet, and in 1909 was elected chairman of the Port of London Authority, being prominent in this capacity during the strike of transport workers and lightermen at the London docks in 1912. In 1910 he was raised to the peerage. He was appointed first Food Controller in 1916, and in 1917 became secretary to the Sugar Commission, but had to retire owing to ill-health. The same year he was created a viscount.
