Captain The Right Honourable Neil James Archibald Primrose Personal Computer, Military Cross was a British Liberal politician and soldier.
Background
The second son of prime minister Lord Rosebery, he represented Wisbech in parliament from 1910 to 1917 and served as Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in 1915 and as joint-Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury from 1916 to 1917. Primrose was born at Dalmeny House in Midlothian, Scotland, the second son of Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, prime minister to Queen Victoria from 1894 to 1895, by Hannah de Rothschild, daughter of Baron Mayer de Rothschild.
Education
He was educated at Eton and Oxford and played Number.1 for the Oxford Polo team in 1904 and 1905.
Career
He died from wounds received in action in Palestine in 1917. He was the brother of Harry Primrose, 6th Earl of Rosebery and writer Lady Sybil Grant. While at Oxford he was also a keen steeplechase rider.
In February 1915 he was appointed Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in H. H. Asquith"s Liberal administration, but was not offered a post when the coalition government was formed in May of the same year.
When David Lloyd George became prime minister in December 1916, Primrose returned to the government as joint-Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury (government chief whip) alongside Conservative Lord Edmund Talbot, a post he only held until March of the following year. In June 1917 he was sworn of the Privy Council.
Primrose was commissioned into the Buckinghamshire Yeomanry (Royal Buckinghamshire Hussars) in 1909. He died in November 1917 from wounds received in action at Gezer during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign while leading his squadron of the 1/1st Royal Buckinghamshire Yeomanry against Turkish positions on the Abu Shusheh ridge during the Third Battle of Gaza.
He is buried in the Ramleh Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery at Ramla, in Israel.
Primrose married Lady Victoria Stanley, daughter of Edward Stanley, 17th Earl of Derby, on 7 April 1915. They had one daughter: Ruth Alice Hannah Mary Primrose (18 April 1916 – 1989), who married Charles Wood, 2nd Earl of Halifax, on 25 April 1936. Lady Victoria died in a hunting accident in November 1927, aged 35.
Membership
30th United Kingdom Parliament]
Primrose entered the House of Commons at the December 1910 general election as Member of Parliament (Member of Parliament) for Wisbech. In 1913 he became a member of the Anglo-American Peace Centenary Committee.