George Hay, Earl of Gifford

File:George, Earl of Gifford (1822-1862)

George Hay, Earl of Gifford (26 April 1822 – 22 December 1862) was a British Liberal Party^[1] politician.

Lord Gifford was born at Yester House, the eldest son of the 8th Marquess of Tweeddale. He was educated at Trinity College and Trinity Hall, Cambridge,^[2] where he was president of the University Pitt Club.^[3] In 1850, he was a Captain in the East Lothian Yeomanry Cavalry and became Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for War (The Duke of Newcastle) in 1854. A year later, he entered Parliament as MP for Totnes (a seat he held until his death).

In 1862, Lord Gifford was involved in an accident whilst rescuing a workman about to be crushed by a tree the latter was cutting down in the grounds of Yester Castle. Because of the accident, the Dowager Baroness Dufferin and Claneboye (a close friend of his who previously refused his proposals) agreed to marry Lord Gifford and they did so at Dufferin Lodge on 13 October 1862. As a result of the accident, Lord Gifford died two months later and as he and his wife did not have any children, his brother, Lord Arthur became the heir to their father's titles and estate.

Sources

1. Craig, F. W. S. (1989) [1977]. British parliamentary election results 1832–1885 (2nd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. pp. 310–311. ISBN 0-900178-26-4.
2. "Gifford, Earl of (George Hay) (GFRT841)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
3. Fletcher, Walter Morley (2011) [1935]. The University Pitt Club: 1835-1935 (First Paperback ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 77. ISBN 978-1-107-60006-5.

• Burke's Peerage & Gentry
• Electric Scotland - The Hays of Tweeddale
• Worldroots

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by George Hay, Earl of Gifford