[2nd Viscount]. English politician and writer, eldest son of the 1st Viscount Esher; born in London on the 30th of June 1852. He was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, and afterwards entered politics, becoming private secretary to the Marquess of Harrington in 1878. From 1880 to 1885 he sat as Liberal member for Penrhyn and Falmouth, and in the latter year unsuccessfully contested Plymouth. From 1895 to 1902 he was secretary to the Office of Works. He succeeded his father in 1899 and in 1901 was appointed deputy constable and lieutenant-governor of Windsor Castle. In 1902 he was appointed one of the commissioners who inquired into the conduct of the South African War, in 1903 he was chairman of the War Office Reconstitution Committee, and in 1905 became a permanent member of the Committee of Imperial Defence. From 1909 to 1913 he was chairman of the Territorial Force Association of the county of London. Lord Esher was selected by King Edward VII. as one of the editors of the Letters of Queen Victoria, which appeared in 1907, and he produced The Girlhood of Queen Victoria (1912). His other works include Footprints of Statesmen (1892); To-day and To-morrow (1910); The Influence of King Edward (1914); After the War (1918); and The Tragedy of Kitchener (1921).
