William Richard Ormsby-Gore
(1819-1904)
18 April 1861

Volume 3, page 113, sitting number 3142.

William Richard Ormsby-Gore was born into a Shropshire family on 3 March 1819 and was educated at Eton. On leaving school, he enlisted in the Army, eventually becoming a Major in the service of the 13th Light Dragoons.

In the 1841 election Ormsby-Gore was elected unopposed as Conservative M.P. for County Sligo, Ireland. In 1852 there was a contest for the seat and he was defeated by the nationalist-inclined Liberal candidate. He was returned to Parliament in a by-election on 17 May 1858 as the Member of Parliament for Leitrim. He bought an estate at Derrycarne near Dromond and went on to rise to high office in the county, becoming High Sheriff there in 1865. He was appointed Lord Lieutenant in 1878.

On 10 September 1850 he married Emily Charlotte Seymour, daughter of Admiral Sir George Francis Seymour and sister of the 5th Marquess of Hertford.

On 14 January 1876 Ormsby-Gore’s elder brother John was created Baron Harlech. As he was childless, the peerage was created with a ‘special remainder’ to his younger brother, meaning that he was made heir presumptive to the peerage should the 1st Baron die without a legitimate heir. This was an unusual procedure and it was determined at the time that the last such case had been 45 years before. As it happened, the 1st Baron died only a few months later, on 15 June 1876, and was succeeded by his younger brother.

William Richard Ormsby-Gore, 2nd Baron Harlech, died on 26 June 1904.

[From an album compiled by Gertrude Frances Vesey of Long Ditton, Surrey. The daughter of George and Harriet Vesey, she was baptised at Long Ditton on 4 July 1842. She was 18 years old when she began to compile the album. She lived at home with her parents for many years, until on 23 November 1876, at the age of 34, she became the second wife of the 58-year-old Reverend John William Hawtrey (1818-1891). She appears on the 1881 census living at St Michael’s School, Langley Marish, Buckinghamshire, where her husband was the headmaster 'without the cure of souls.' The couple had a three-year-old daughter called Gabrielle and a nine-month-old son called Guy.]