Background
Born in Gatton, Queensland, he was the son of Honorary He married American born Margaret Eleanor Crosby (d 1 March 1943), the daughter of Ernest Howard Crosby and Fanny Kendall Schieffelin.
Born in Gatton, Queensland, he was the son of Honorary He married American born Margaret Eleanor Crosby (d 1 March 1943), the daughter of Ernest Howard Crosby and Fanny Kendall Schieffelin.
He was educated at Wellington College, Berkshire, whereafter he joined the 13th/18th Hussars reaching the rank of captain.
He was the first native-born governor of an Australian state. William Arcedeckne Vanneck and Mary Armstrong. She was also a descendant of King Robert III of Scotland.
They had four children:
Honorary
Sara Carola Vanneck (25 September 1913 – 2001), married Major David Arthur Peel in Melbourne, Australia on 14 April 1936. He was a grandson of Arthur Peel, 1st Viscount Peel and died in action in World World War II in September 1944.
Gerald Vanneck, 6th Baron Huntingfield (1915–1994)
Honorary Anne Margaret Theodosia Vanneck (20 May 1918 – 2000), married Peter Moro, the architect, on 2 March 1940 and had issue.
Divorced 1984. Honorary Sir Peter Vanneck (1922–1999)
Between 1923 and 1929 he was member for Eye, Suffolk in the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
He was successively Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of the Home Office 1926-1927, and then to the President of the Board of Trade between 1927-1928. In 1934 Lord Huntingfield became the Governor of Victoria, Australia, being the first Australian-born governor of an Australian state (although he was always considered British). (Despite this, Victoria was the last of the states to appoint an Australian as governor, Sir Henry Winneke in 1974) His term expired in 1939.
He served as Administrator of Australia between March 1938 and September 1938.
Although he was offered the post of Governor of Southern Rhodesia in 1942, he did not take up the position due to ill-health. He was a freemason. He was initiated to the craft in 1919, in the United Lodge Number.
330 in Victoria as a Past Master in 1934. Shortly after that, in 1935, he became Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Victoria.
After his return to England, in 1940, he was appointed Senior Grand Warden of the United Grand Lodge of England.
He was Colonel of the 58th Battalion, Company of London Home Guard during World World War World War II He was given the rank of Honorary Air Commodore in Number. 21 (City of Melbourne) Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force. Finally he was invested as a Knight of Grace, Order of Saint John of Jerusalem.
Honorary
Katherine Grace Vanneck (b 10 August 1954), married Nicholas John Bacon on 2 December 1976 and had issue.
33rd United Kingdom Parliament. 34th United Kingdom Parliament]
1629. He became a member of the United Service Lodge Number.