Preceded by The Earl of Hopetoun Name Victor 1st Succeeded by The Lord Denman | Preceded by The Lord Camoys Succeeded by The Lord Playfair | |
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Born 23 October 1864 ( 1864-10-23 ) Died 3 January 1934(1934-01-03) (aged 69) Spouse(s) Lady Verena Maud Lowther
Christine McRae Sinclair | ||
Major Victor Albert Francis Charles Spencer, 1st Viscount Churchill (23 October 1864 – 3 January 1934), known as Victor Albert Spencer until 1886 and as The Lord Churchill between 1886 and 1902, was a British peer and courtier.
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Background
Spencer was born at 32, Albemarle Street, London, the son of Francis Spencer, 2nd Baron Churchill, and his wife Jane. He was a Page of Honour to Queen Victoria from 1876 to 1881, and in 1886 he succeeded to his father's title of Baron Churchill.
Educated at Eton College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, he was commissioned into the Coldstream Guards.
Political career
Spencer was a Lord in Waiting from 1889 to 1892 and 1895 to 1905 in both of Salisbury's governments and was created Viscount Churchill, of Rolleston, in the County of Leicester, on 15 July 1902 (it had already been announced in the Coronation Honours list that he would be created a Viscount).
Business career
He was chairman and director of several transport companies, including the Great Western Railway 1908-34 and was the longest serving chairman of the company, the British India Steamship Company, P&O and the Grand Union Canal.
Honours
Family
Lord Churchill married Lady Verena Maud Lowther, daughter of Henry Lowther, 3rd Earl of Lonsdale, at Cottesmore, Rutland, on 1 January 1887. They had four children. The couple were divorced in 1927. Churchill married as his second wife Christine McRae Sinclair. They had two children. He died of pneumonia on 3 January 1934.