George Coventry, 9th Earl of Coventry

Coventry was born on 9 May 1838 at Wilton Crescent, London. He was the son of George William Coventry, Viscount Deerhurst, and the former Harriett Anne Cockerell. His elder sister, Lady Maria Emma Catherine Coventry, was the wife of Hon. Gerald Henry Brabazon Ponsonby (the youngest son of John Ponsonby, 4th Earl of Bessborough).[1]

His paternal grandparents were George Coventry, 8th Earl of Coventry and the former Hon. Emma Susanna Lygon (a daughter of William Lygon, 1st Earl Beauchamp). Sir Charles Cockerell, 1st Baronet and the former Hon. Harriet Rushout (a daughter of John Rushout, 1st Baron Northwick).[2]

He was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford.[2]

Coventry sat on the Conservative benches in the House of Lords and served as Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms under the Earl of Beaconsfield from 1877 to 1880 and under Lord Salisbury from 1885 to 1886 and under Salisbury as Master of the Buckhounds from 1886 to 1892 and again from 1895 to 1900. In 1877 he was admitted to the Privy Council.[2]

Coventry was also Lord Lieutenant of Worcestershire from 1891 to 1903,[2] and an Honorary Colonel of the 3rd and 4th (Militia) Battalions, the Worcestershire Regiment from 1900.[3] He was honoured as Lord High steward of Tewkesbury in December 1901,[4] and received the Honorary Freedom of the borough of Tewkesbury in January 1902.[5] During the First World War the Earl of Coventry, as Lord Lieutenant, was the figurehead of the county war effort. He chaired a number of committees and charities, and was President of the Worcestershire Volunteer Regiment of the Volunteer Training Corps (the WW1 Home Guard).[6] Apart from his political career he was also involved in horseracing. His racing colours were brown with blue cap and were carried to victory in consecutive Grand Nationals by the half-sisters Emblem, 1863, and Emblematic, 1864.[7] In 1899 he was President of the Royal Agricultural Society.[2]

The Earl was also interested in the development of agriculture and maintained a paternalistic attitude toward his tenants. He established a jam factory in order to provide them with a local outlet for their fruit although this proved unable to compete with larger-scale commercial competitors and went into liquidation in 1908.[8]

Memorial to the 9th Earl of Coventry in the church at Croome Court

On 25 January 1865, Lord Coventry married Lady Blanche Craven, daughter of William Craven, 2nd Earl of Craven and the former Lady Emily Mary Grimston (a daughter of James Grimston, 1st Earl of Verulam. Together they had six sons and three daughters:[2]

• George William Coventry, Viscount Deerhurst (1865–1927), who married the American-born Virginia Lee Bonynge (née Daniel), the daughter of William Daniel who was adopted by Charles William Bonynge.[9]
• Hon. Charles John Coventry (1867–1929), who was a soldier and successful cricketer;[10] he married Lily Whitehouse, daughter of William Fitzhugh Whitehouse and sister to U.S. diplomat Edwin Sheldon Whitehouse, in 1900.[2]
• Hon. Henry Thomas Coventry (1868–1934), who also played first-class cricket;[11] he married Edith (née Kip) McCreery, daughter of Col. Lawrence Kip and Eva Lorillard Kip, in 1907.[2]
• Hon. Sir Reginald William Coventry (1869–1940), who married Gwenllian Pascoe Morgan, daughter of Edward Vaughan Morgan, in 1911. After her death in 1925, he married Frances Constance Jones, daughter of Charles Gwillim Jones, in 1926.[2]
• Lady Barbara Elizabeth Coventry (1870–1946), who married Gerald Dudley Smith, son of Dudley Robert Smith, in 1894.[2]
• Lady Dorothy Coventry (1872–1965), who married Sir Keith Fraser, 5th Baronet, in 1910.[2]
• Lady Anne Blanche Alice Coventry (1874–1956), who married Prince Victor Duleep Singh, the eldest son of Maharaja Duleep Singh.[2]
• Hon. William Francis Coventry (1875–1937), who died unmarried.[2]
• Hon. Thomas George Coventry (1885–1972), who married Alice Ward, daughter of Thomas Ward, in 1910. They divorced around 1930.[2]

Lord Coventry died on 13 March 1930, aged 91,[12] and was succeeded in the earldom by his grandson George, the son of George William Coventry, Viscount Deerhurst.[9] Lady Coventry survived her husband by only three days and died on 16 March 1930, aged 87.[2]

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Earl of Coventry