Background
William Henry Edgcumbe was born on November 5, 1833. He was the son of Ernest Edgcumbe, 3rd Earl of Mount Edgcumbe, and Caroline Augusta, daughter of Rear-Admiral Charles Feilding.
William Henry Edgcumbe was born on November 5, 1833. He was the son of Ernest Edgcumbe, 3rd Earl of Mount Edgcumbe, and Caroline Augusta, daughter of Rear-Admiral Charles Feilding.
In 1879 he sworn of the Privy Council and appointed Lord Chamberlain of the Household by the Earl of Beaconsfield, a post he held until the government fell in 1880. He later served under Lord Salisbury as Lord Steward of the Household between 1885 and 1886 and again between 1886 and 1892. Between 1877 and 1917 he served as Lord-Lieutenant of Cornwall.
In early 1901 Lord Mount Edgcumbe was appointed by King Edward to lead a special diplomatic mission to announce the King´s accession to the governments of Belgium, Bavaria, Italy, Württemberg, and the Netherlands.
William Henry Edgcumbe married firstly, Lady Katherine Hamilton, daughter of James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Abercorn, on 26 October 1858. They had four children: Lady Victoria Frederica Caroline Edgcumbe, Lady Alberta Louise Florence Edgcumbe, Lady Edith Hilaria Edgcumbe, Piers Alexander Hamilton Edgcumbe.
After Lady Katherine's death in September 1874 Edgcumbe married secondly, his first cousin, Caroline Cecilia, daughter of the Hon. George Edgcumbe and widow of Atholl Liddell, 3rd Earl of Ravensworth, on 21 April 1906. She died in February 1909.