William Leveson-Gower, 4th Earl Granville
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William Spencer Leveson-Gower, 4th Earl Granville, KG, GCVO, CB, DSO (July 11, 1880–June 25, 1953) was a British sailor and governor. The younger son of Granville George Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Granville, he became a naval cadet in 1894 and went to serve in the China station two years later. By 1900 a Sub Lieutenant, he was promoted Lieutenant two years later, and was subsequently stationed in the Red Sea as well as the Cape of Good Hope. For six years he commanded a number of destroyers, being promoted Commander in 1913, and during the First World War he led a number of destroyer divisions, for which services he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order.
After the war, Leveson-Gower was posted to a destroyer flotilla in the Mediterranean for two years, and in 1924 he became Chief of Staff to Admiral Sir William Goodenough, Commander in Chief at the Nore. He served in the East again for two years before becoming aide-de-camp to the King in 1929, and in 1931, by now a Rear Admiral, he took command on the coast of Scotland. He was made a Companion of the Bath the following year, and in 1935 was promoted Vice Admiral and placed on the retired list.
In 1937, Leveson-Gower was sent to the Isle of Man as Lieutenant Governor there, and succeeded his elder brother as fourth Earl Granville on the latter's death in 1939. In 1945, he became a KCVO and the second Governor of Northern Ireland, and although reappointed six years later for a second term, he was forced to resign in 1952 due to ill-health. He was made a Knight of the Garter that same year.
In 1916, Lord Granville married Lady Rose Constance Bowes-Lyon, the second surviving daughter of the 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, and elder sister to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. She died in 1967, while he himself predeceased her at the age of 72. He was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium.
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by The Duke of Abercorn |
Governor of Northern Ireland 1945–1952 |
Succeeded by The Lord Wakehurst |
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
| Preceded by Granville George Leveson-Gower |
Earl Granville 1939–1953 |
Succeeded by Granville James Leveson-Gower |
| Governors and Lieutenant Governors of the Isle of Man |  |
|---|---|
| Christian, Stanley N, Stanley C, Mawdesley, Stanley C, Horne, Lloyd, Horton, 2nd Duke of Atholl, Lindsey, Cochrane, Wood, 4th Duke of Atholl, Hope, Dawson, Shaw, Murray, Smelt, Ready, Hope, Connat-Pigott, Loch, Walpole, Ridgeway, Henniker-Major, Somerset, Fry, Hill, Butler, Granville, Bromet, Dundas, Garvey, Stallard, Paul, Cecil, New, Jones, Daunt, MacFadyen, Haddacks |
