Stanley Buckmaster, 1st Viscount Buckmaster

The Right Honourable The Viscount Buckmaster GCVO PC KC
Lord Chancellor
In office 25 May 1915 – 5 December 1916
Monarch	George V
Prime Minister	H. H. Asquith
Preceded by	The Viscount Haldane
Succeeded by	The Viscount Finlay
Personal details
Born	9 January 1861 (1861-01-09)
Died	5 December 1934 (1934-12-06) London
Nationality	British
Political party	Liberal
Spouse(s)	Edith Lewin (d. 1935)
Alma mater	Christ Church, Oxford

Stanley Owen Buckmaster, 1st Viscount Buckmaster, GCVO, PC, KC (9 January 1861 – 5 December 1934) was a British lawyer and Liberal politician. He was Lord Chancellor under H. H. Asquith between 1915 and 1916.

Background and education

Buckmaster was the third son of John Charles Buckmaster, of Ashleigh, Hampton Wick, by his wife Emily Anne (née Goodliffe), and was educated at Aldenham and Christ Church, Oxford. He was called to Bar, Inner Temple in 1884 and appointed King's Counsel in 1902.

Political career

At the 1906 general election, Buckmaster was elected as Liberal Member of Parliament for Cambridge, losing the seat in at the January 1910 general election. He then sat for Keighley, Yorkshire, from 1911 to 1915. He was a Member of the Council of the Duchy of Lancaster and served under H. H. Asquith as Solicitor-General from 1913 to 1915. He was knighted in 1913. In 1915 he was sworn of the Privy Council, raised to the peerage as Baron Buckmaster, of Cheddington in the County of Buckingham, and appointed Lord Chancellor, a post he held until December 1916, when Asquith was ousted as Prime Minister.

Buckmaster was also Counsel to the University of Oxford from 1911 to 1913, Director of The Press Bureau, 1914 to 1915, and a member of The Interallied Conference on Finance and Supplies. He later served as Chairman of the Governing Body of Imperial College of Science and Technology and as Chairman of the Political Honours Review Committee between 1924 and 1929. He was appointed GCVO in 1930 and was made Viscount Buckmaster, of Cheddington in the County of Buckingham, in 1933.

Family

Buckmaster married Edith Augusta, daughter of Spencer Robert Lewin, in 1889. Their eldest daughter the Hon. Barbara was the mother of the Conservative politician Hal Miller. Buckmaster died in December 1934, aged 73, and was succeeded in his titles by his only son, Owen. Lady Buckmaster died in October 1935.

References

• ‹The template Lundy is being considered for deletion.›  This page incorporates information from Darryl Lundy's thePeerage.com page.

Further reading

For a fuller biography see William Goodhart, ‘Buckmaster, Stanley Owen, first Viscount Buckmaster (1861–1934)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004.

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Viscount Buckmaster

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Sir Robert Uniacke-Penrose-Fitzgerald, Bt	Member of Parliament for Cambridge 1906 – January 1910	Succeeded by Almeric Paget
Preceded by Sir John Brigg	Member of Parliament for Keighley 1911 – 1915	Succeeded by Sir Swire Smith
Legal offices
Preceded by Sir John Simon	Solicitor General 1913 – 1915	Succeeded by Sir F. E. Smith
Political offices
Preceded by The Viscount Haldane	Lord Chancellor 1915 – 1916	Succeeded by The Viscount Finlay
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation	Viscount Buckmaster 1933 – 1934	Succeeded by Owen Buckmaster
	Baron Buckmaster 1915 – 1934