Arthur Griffith-Boscawen

Who was Arthur Griffith-Boscawen?

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Arthur Sackville Trevor Griffith-Boscawen PC was a Wales-born British Conservative Party politician whose career was cut short by losing a string of Parliamentary elections.

Griffith-Boscawen was born in Trefalyn, Denbighshire, son of Captain Boscawen Trevor Griffith who assumed the additional surname of Boscawen in 1875. He was educated at Rugby School and Queen's College, Oxford.

In 1892 he was elected Member of Parliament for Tunbridge in Kent, a county of which he became JP in 1896. He became private secretary to Chancellor of the Exchequer Michael Hicks-Beach in 1895, a job he held before becoming Parliamentary Charity Commissioner in 1900, serving until 1905.

He lost his Tunbridge seat in the 1906 General Election. He unsuccessfully contested East Denbighshire at a by-election in August that year, and Dudley, Worcestershire at the first general election held in 1910, before being returned for the latter seat later that year.

He also sat as a member of the London County Council from 1910 to 1913.

Griffith-Boscawen had a special interest in working class housing throughout his career.