Gerald Arbuthnot

Who was Gerald Arbuthnot?

Gerald Archibald Arbuthnot was a British soldier and Conservative Party politician.

The son of Major General William Arbuthnot and Selina Moncreiffe, he was Vice-Chancellor of the Primrose League. Arbuthnot was private secretary to the Board of Agriculture from 1895 to 1899, assistant private secretary to the President of the Local Government Board in 1901 and 1902 and assistant private secretary to the Chief Secretary for Ireland in 1905 and 1906. Between January and December 1910, he was Member of Parliament for Burnley.

In the First World War, he served in the Grenadier Guards and reached the rank of 2nd Lieutenant, having been made a Lieutenant in the service of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve already in 1886. Arbuthnot died aged 43, killed in action and was buried at Citadel New Military Cemetery, Fricourt.

He married Dulcie Antoinette Oppenheim, daughter of Charles Augustus Oppenheim, on 6 February 1894. They had three daughters, one of whom married rower and financier Ian Fairbairn.