Ronald Greville


Hon. Ronald Henry Fulke Greville MVO was an English Conservative Party politician. He was Member of Parliament for Bradford East from 1896 to 1906.

Early life

Greville was born 14 October 1864 the eldest of four children of Algernon Greville, 2nd Baron Greville and his wife Lady Beatrice Violet Graham.
His paternal grandparents were Fulke Greville-Nugent, 1st Baron Greville and his wife, Lady Rosa Nugent. His maternal grandparents were James Graham, 4th Duke of Montrose and the former Hon. Caroline Agnes Horsley-Beresford.

Career

He was educated at Rugby School and entered the Army, at first in the 3rd Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and then the 1st Life Guards. Greville resigned his commission in 1896 when he was elected as a Member of Parliament.

Political career

Greville first stood for Parliament at the 1895 general election, when he was unsuccessful candidate in the Liberal-held Barnsley division of the West Riding of Yorkshire After the death of Henry Byron Reed, the Conservative MP for the Eastern division of Bradford, Greville was selected as the Conservative candidate for the resulting by-election in November 1896. He won the contest, and was re-elected in 1900, holding the seat until he retired from the House of Commons at the 1906 general election.
He was a Captain in the 1st Life Guards until he resigned this commission in June 1896.

Personal life

On 25 April 1891 he married Margaret Helen Anderson. Margaret was the illegitimate daughter of William McEwan, a multimillionaire brewer and his mistress, Helen Anderson, a cook who married McEwan after her first husband's death in 1885. After their marriage, they lived at Polesden Lacey, in Great Bookham, Surrey, a gift from his wife's father.
On 5 April 1908, when Greville was 43, he died from pneumonia following an operation, predeceasing his own father and never acceding to the peerage. As Ronald had no children, after his father's death the following December 1909, his younger brother Charles became the 3rd Baron Greville.