Background
Clarendon was the second but eldest surviving son of the prominent Liberal statesman George Villiers, 4th Earl of Clarendon and his wife Lady Katherine Grimston, daughter of James Grimston, 1st Earl of Verulam.
Clarendon was the second but eldest surviving son of the prominent Liberal statesman George Villiers, 4th Earl of Clarendon and his wife Lady Katherine Grimston, daughter of James Grimston, 1st Earl of Verulam.
He was educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge.
He served as Lord Chamberlain of the Household between 1900 and 1905. Clarendon was elected to Parliament for Brecon in 1869, a seat he retained until the following year, when he succeeded his father in the earldom and took his seat in the House of Lords. In 1895 he was appointed a Lord-in-Waiting in the Unionist administration of Lord Salisbury, a position he held until 1900, when he was promoted to Lord Chamberlain of the Household and admitted to the Privy Council.
He retained this office also when Arthur Balfour became Prime Minister in 1902.
The government fell in December 1905 and Clarendon was never to return to office. Apart from his political career Lord Clarendon was also Lord-Lieutenant of Hertfordshire from 1893 to 1914.
Clarendon made one known appearance in first-class cricket for Cambridge University in 1865. He was a right-handed batsman (RHB) and a roundarm fast bowler.
This football team was later to become known as Watford Football Club.
Lord Clarendon married firstly, Lady Caroline Agar, daughter of James Agar, 3rd Earl of Normanton, on 6 September 1876. George Herbert Hyde Villiers, 6th Earl of Clarendon (1877–1955)
Lady Edith Villiers (1878–1935).
20th United Kingdom Parliament]
Between 1890 and 1896, Lord Clarendon was a member of the Football Committee at West Hertfordshire Sports Club, chairing some of the meetings