Gerald William Balfour, 2nd Earl of Balfour, PC (9 April 1853 – 14 January 1945), known as Gerald Balfour or The Rt Hon. G. W. Balfour until 1930, was a senior British Conservative politician who became a peer on the death of his brother, former prime minister Arthur Balfour, in 1930.
After losing his seat in the House of Commons in the Liberal landslide of 1906, he was chairman of the Commission on Lighthouse Administration in 1908, and chairman of the Cambridge Committee of the Commission on Oxford and Cambridge Universities. He succeeded his brother Arthur as second Earl of Balfour in 1930, according to a special remainder in the letters patent and took a seat in the House of Lords.
Personal life and academic honours
During his first spell at the Houses of Parliament, Balfour received an honorary LLD from Cambridge University, and was a fellow of Trinity.
Lady Kathleen Constance Blanche Balfour (1912 – 20 August 1996).
An affair with Welsh Liberal politician Winifred Coombe Tennant resulted in a further child, Augustus Henry.[6]
The Countess of Balfour died in 1942, aged 74. Lord Balfour survived her by three years and died at Whittingehame on 14 January 1945, aged 91, by which time he was the last surviving member of any of long-serving Prime Minister Salisbury's cabinets.[1] He was succeeded in the earldom by his only son Robert.
^H. E. Malden, ed. (1911). "Parishes: Woking". A History of the County of Surrey: Volume 3. Institute of Historical Research. Retrieved 20 November 2013.
^Pleasants. Helene. (1964). Gerald Balfour. In Biographical Dictionary of Parapsychology with Directory and Glossary 1946-1996. New York: Garrett Publications.
^Haynes, Renée. (1982). The Society for Psychical Research 1882-1982: A History. London: MacDonald & Co. p. 189. ISBN978-0356078755
^Secret life story of psychic MP Winifred Coombe Tennant, BBC News, 18 May 2011 [1]
G. E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910–1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, UK: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume XIII, p. 373.
Peter W. Hammond, editor, The Complete Peerage or a History of the House of Lords and All its Members From the Earliest Times, Volume XIV: Addenda & Corrigenda (Stroud, Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing, 1998), p. 691.
Charles Mosley, editor, Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 106th edition, 2 volumes (Crans, Switzerland: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 1999), volume 1, p. 173.