George Hennessy, 1st Baron Windlesham

Who was George Hennessy, 1st Baron Windlesham?

George Richard James Hennessy, 1st Baron Windlesham OBE, was a British soldier and Conservative politician.

Hennessy, an Anglo-Irish aristocrat, served in the First World War as a Major in the King's Royal Rifle Corps and on the Staff of the 8th Division. In 1918 he was elected to parliament for Winchester, a seat he held until 1931, and served under Bonar Law and Baldwin as a Junior Lord of the Treasury from 1922 to 1924 and from 1924 to 1925, as Vice-Chamberlain of the Household from 1925 to 1928 and as Treasurer of the Household from 1928 to 1929. Hennessy held the latter position also from September to November 1931 in the National Government of Ramsay Macdonald. From 1931 to 1941 he was Vice-Chairman of the Conservative and Unionist Party. Hennessy was created a Baronet, of Windlesham in the County of Surrey, in 1927, and on 22 February 1937 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Windlesham, of Windlesham in the County of Surrey.

Lord Windlesham married Ethel Mary Wynter, daughter of Charles Reginald Wynter, in 1898. He died in October 1953, aged 76, and was succeeded in the baronetcy and barony by his eldest son, James Hennessy.