Arthur Annesley, 11th Viscount Valentia, Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order, Central Bank, Justice of the Peace was a British soldier, courtier and Conservative politician.
Background
Annesley was the eldest son of the Honourable Arthur Annesley by his wife Flora Mary Macdonald, daughter of Lieutenant Colonel James Macdonald of Clanranald. His father died when he was one year old and he succeeded his grandfather in the viscountcy in 1863.
Education
Royal Military Academy, Woolwich.
Career
He notably served as Comptroller of the Household between 1898 and 1905. He was educated at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. Annesley joined the 10th Hussars in 1864 and was promoted to lieutenant in 1868.
He retired from the Army in 1872, but in 1894 was appointed Lieutenant colonel of the Queen"s Own Oxfordshire Hussars.
In early 1900, Lord Valentia was seconded for service with the Imperial Yeomanry in the Second Boer War, and left for South Africa in the Steamship Scot in late January. He served as Assistant Adjutant-General for Imperial Yeomanry, with the temporary rank of Colonel, and was mentioned in despatches and appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (Central Bank) in November 1900 for his services.
Upon relinquishing his commission, he was granted, on 1 January 1901, the honorary rank of Colonel in the Army. He was appointed High Sheriff of Oxfordshire for 1874-1875.
The viscountcy of Valentia was an Irish peerage and did not entitle Annesley to an automatic seat in the House of Lords.
He served as Comptroller of the Household under Lord Salisbury from 1898 to 1902 and under Arthur Balfour from 1902-1905. When the coalition government was formed in 1915, Lord Valentia was appointed a Lord in Waiting, a post he held until 1924. In 1917 he was created Baron Annesley of Bletchington, in the County of Oxford, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, which entitled him to a seat in the House of Lords.
Lord Valentia married, on 30 January 1878, Laura Sarah Webb, daughter of Daniel Hale Webb, of Wykeham Park, Oxfordshire, and widow of Sir Algernon William Peyton, 4th Baronet.
Captain The Honourable Arthur Annesley (1880 - 1914). Major Caryl Arthur James Annesley, twelfth Viscount Valentia, Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (1883 - 1949).
The Honourable Vere Annesely (born 1879), who married, on 23 July 1901, the Review Guy Ronald Campbell, and has issue.
The Honourable Violet Kathleen Annesley (born 1882).
The Honourable Helen Annesley (born 1884), who married, on 3 October 1905, John Pemberton Heywood Heywood-Lonsdale. The Honourable Lettice Annesley (born 1885). The Honourable Hilda Cecil Annesley (born 1889).
The Honourable Dorothy Annesley (born 1892).
Caryl Arthur James Annesley, as Lord Valentia"s elder son, the Honorary Arthur Annesley, was killed in action in 1914.
He was the Chairman of the Hurlingham Club Committee and the National Pony Society. Bibliography
Ruvigny (Marquess de) (1907).
The Plantagenet Roll of the Blood Royal, "Exeter" volume.
Membership
26th United Kingdom Parliament. 27th United Kingdom Parliament. 28th United Kingdom Parliament.
29th United Kingdom Parliament.
30th United Kingdom Parliament]
He was instead elected Member of Parliament for Oxford in 1895, a seat he held until 1917.