James Lowther, 1st Viscount Ullswater

James William Lowther, 1st Viscount Ullswater, GCB, PC, JP, DL (1 April 1855 – 27 March 1949), was a British Conservative politician. He was Speaker of the House of Commons between 1905 and 1921. He was the longest-serving Speaker of the 20th century.

The Viscount Ullswater
Portrait by Philip de László, c. 1905
Speaker of the House of Commons
of the United Kingdom
In office
8 June 1905  28 April 1921
Monarchs
Preceded bySir William Gully
Succeeded byJ. H. Whitley
Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons
Chairman of Ways and Means
In office
1895  June 1905
Monarchs
Preceded byJohn William Mellor
Succeeded bySir John Lawson
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
In office
22 September 1891  18 August 1892
MonarchVictoria
Prime MinisterThe Marquess of Salisbury
Preceded bySir James Fergusson
Succeeded bySir Edward Grey
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
In office
8 July 1921  27 March 1949
Hereditary Peerage
Preceded byPeerage created
Succeeded byThe 2nd Viscount Ullswater
Member of Parliament
for Penrith and Cockermouth
In office
14 December 1918  13 May 1921
Preceded byconstituency established
Succeeded byCecil Lowther
Member of Parliament
for Penrith
In office
27 July 1886  14 December 1918
Preceded byHenry Howard
Succeeded byconstituency abolished
Member of Parliament
for Rutland
In office
1 September 1883  18 December 1885
Preceded byGerard Noel
Succeeded byGeorge Finch
Personal details
Born1 April 1855 (1855-04)
Died27 March 1949(1949-03-27) (aged 93)
NationalityBritish
Political partyConservative
SpouseMary Beresford-Hope (d. 1944)
Alma materKing's College London
Trinity College, Cambridge

Background and education

The son of Hon. William Lowther, a grandson of William Lowther, 1st Earl of Lonsdale, and for 25 years Member of Parliament for Westmorland, and Alice, 3rd daughter of James Parke, 1st Baron Wensleydale, Lowther was educated at Eton College, King's College London where he took an Associateship degree, and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he studied classics and law.[1] Lowther became a barrister in 1879, eventually becoming a Bencher of the Inner Temple in 1906.

Political career

He was Member of Parliament for Rutland in 1883; contested Mid Cumberland in 1885; and sat for Penrith from 1886 to 1921. He was appointed 4th Charity Commissioner in 1887, and held junior ministerial office as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs from 1891 to 1892. He was Chairman of Ways and Means and Deputy Speaker from 1895 to 1905 and Speaker of the House of Commons from 1905 to 1921.

There are three golden rules for Parliamentary speakers: Stand up. Speak up. Shut up.

J. W. Lowther, 1917

Other public appointments

Lowther caricatured by Spy for Vanity Fair, 1906

Lowther represented Great Britain at the International Conference at Venice in 1892, and at the International Conference on Emigration at Rome in 1924. He was Chairman of the Speakers' Electoral Reform Conference in 1916–1917, of the Buckingham Palace Conference (on the partition of Ulster) in 1914, of the Boundary Commissions (Great Britain and Ireland) in 1917, of the Royal Commission on Proportional Representation in 1918, Devolution Conference in 1919, of the Royal Commission on London Government, 1921–1922; of Review Committee Political Honours, 1923–1924, and Statutory Commission on Cambridge University, 1923; of the Agricultural Wages Board from 1930 to 1940; of the Lords and Commons Committee on Electoral Reform, 1929–1930; and of BBC Enquiry Committee, 1935. He was a Trustee of the British Museum from 1922 to 1931 and a Trustee of the National Portrait Gallery from 1925. In 1907 his portrait was painted by Philip de Laszlo.

Honours

He was appointed to the Privy Council in 1898, created 1st Viscount Ullswater, of Campsea Ashe, in the County of Suffolk, on his retirement as Speaker in 1921,[2] and appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB) in July 1921.[3] He also held the degrees of DCL from the University of Oxford, LL.D from the University of Cambridge and DCL from the University of Leeds.

Arms

Coat of arms of James Lowther, 1st Viscount Ullswater
Crest
A dragon passant Argent.
Escutcheon
Or six annulets three two and one and in chief a crescent for difference all Sable.
Supporters
On either side a horse Argent gorged with a wreath of laurel Vert and charged on the shoulder with a portcullis chained Or.
Motto
Magistratum Indicat Virum (The Office Shows The Man)[4]

Family

On 1 March 1886, Lowther married Mary Frances Beresford-Hope (d. 16 May 1944). They had three children:

  • Major Christopher William Lowther (b. 18 January 1887, d. 7 January 1935).
  • Arthur James Beresford Lowther (b. 28 October 1888, d. 2 March 1967)
  • Mildred Lowther (b. 1890,[5] d. 2 July 1973)

He was succeeded to the viscountcy by his great-grandson.

Footnotes

  1. "Lowther, James William (LWTR874JW)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  2. "No. 32413". The London Gazette. 5 August 1921. p. 6166.
  3. "No. 32394". The London Gazette. 19 July 1921. p. 5724.
  4. Debrett's Peerage. 2019. p. 4646.
  5. England & Wales, FreeBMD Birth Index, 1837–1915
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