George Sclater-Booth, 1st Baron Basing

The Right Honourable The Lord Basing PC, FRS, DL
"The safe man". Caricature by Ape published in Vanity Fair in 1874.
President of the Local Government Board
In office 1874–1880
Monarch	Victoria
Prime Minister	Benjamin Disraeli
Preceded by	James Stansfeld
Succeeded by	John George Dodson
Personal details
Born	19 May 1826 London
Died	22 October 1894 (aged 68) Hoddington House, Hampshire
Nationality	British
Political party	Conservative
Spouse(s)	Lydia Birch (d. 1881)
Alma mater	Balliol College, Oxford

George Limbrey Sclater-Booth, 1st Baron Basing PC, FRS, DL (19 May 1826 – 22 October 1894), known as George Sclater-Booth before 1887, was a British Conservative politician. He served as President of the Local Government Board under Benjamin Disraeli between 1874 and 1880.

Background and education

Born George Sclater, Basing was the son of William Lutley Sclater, of Hoddington House, Hampshire, and Anna Maria, daughter of William Bowyer. His brother was the naturalist Philip Sclater. He was educated at Winchester and Balliol College, Oxford, and was called to the Bar, Inner Temple, in 1851. In 1857 he assumed by Royal licence the additional surname of Booth to fulfil the will of Anna Maria Booth.^[1]

Political career

Basing was elected Member of Parliament for North Hampshire in 1857, which constituency he would represent until 1885, when the constituency was divided.^[2] He was then returned for Basingstoke, one of the new divisions of the his old constituency, for which he sat until being made a peer in 1887.^[3] His first position in government was that of Parliamentary Secretary to the Poor Law Board in Lord Derby's third and final ministry, replacing Ralph Anstruther Earle (formerly Disraeli's private secretary), who had resigned over the Reform Bill of 1867. He later served as Financial Secretary to the Treasury in Benjamin Disraeli's short-lived 1868 government. When the Conservatives returned to power in 1874 under Disraeli he was made President of the Local Government Board, which post he held until the fall of the government in 1880. He was sworn of the Privy Council in 1874^[4] and in 1887 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Basing, of Basing Byflete and of Hoddington, both in the County of Southampton.^[5]

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1876.^[6]

Family

Lord Basing married Lydia Caroline, daughter of George Birch, in 1857. They had four sons and six daughters. She died in July 1881. Lord Basing survived her by thirteen years and died at Hoddington House, Hampshire, in October 1894, aged 68. He was succeeded in the barony by his eldest son, George.^[7]

In 1898 his daughter Hon. Eleanor Birch Sclater-Booth married Henry Wilson-Fox, who was later a Conservative MP.^[8]

References

<div class="reflist columns references-column-width" style="-moz-column-width: 2 ^[8]; -webkit-column-width: 2 ^[8]; column-width: 2 ^[8]; list-style-type: decimal;">

1. Lundy, Darryl. "thepeerage.com George Sclater-Booth, 1st Baron Basing of Basin Byflete and of Hoddington". The Peerage.
2. leighrayment.com House of Commons: Hackney-Harwich
3. leighrayment.com House of Commons: Baillieston-Beckenhahm
4. The London Gazette: no. 24072. p. 1519. 6 March 1874.
5. The London Gazette: no. 25718. p. 3626. 5 July 1887.
6. "Library Archive". Royal Society. Retrieved 2012-09-12.
7. Lundy, Darryl. "thepeerage.com George Sclater-Booth, 1st Baron Basing of Basin Byflete and of Hoddington". The Peerage.
8. Arthur G. M. Hesilrige, ed. (1918). Debrett's House of Commons and The Judicial Bench 1918. London: Dean and Son. p. 59. Retrieved 28 June 2014.

• Blake, Robert (1966). Disraeli. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-19-832903-2. OCLC 8047.
• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by George Sclater-Booth