Herbert Spender-Clay


Lt.-Col. Rt. Hon. Herbert Henry Spender-Clay, PC CMG was an English soldier and Conservative Party politician. He sat in the House of Commons from 1910 to 1937.

Career

Spender-Clay was educated at Eton and Sandhurst, and on 10 June 1896 was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 2nd Life Guards. He was promoted to lieutenant on 20 April 1898, and served in the Second Boer War, during which he was further promoted to captain on 25 September 1901. Following his return from South Africa, he resigned his commission in early September 1902 to take up farming on his father's estate in Surrey, which he inherited.
He was elected at January 1910 general election as the Member of Parliament for the Tunbridge division of Kent. He was re-elected in December 1910, and when the division was abolished in boundary changes for the 1918 general election he was returned as a Coalition Conservative for the new Tonbridge division. He held that seat through a further six general elections until his death.
In April–May 1917 he was a member of the Balfour Mission, intended to promote cooperation between the United States and the UK during World War I. Herbert was Deputy Lieutenant and J.P. for Surrey, and a Charity Commissioner. He was appointed to the Privy Council in 1929, and made CMG.
He died on 15 February 1937 aged 61 at his London home at 2 Hyde Park Street, from pneumonia following influenza, and was buried at Dormansland, Surrey.

Family

Herbert Henry Spender-Clay was born on 4 June 1875, the only son of Joseph Spender-Clay and Sydney Garrett. He was a Godson of Rev John Harden Clay, the son of Herbert's great uncle Rev John Clay.
At the age of 29, he married on 29 October 1904, Pauline Astor, who was then 24. She was the elder daughter of William Waldorf Astor, 1st Viscount Astor and Mary Dahlgren Paul. Herbert and Pauline had three daughters:
They lived at Ford Manor, Lingfield, Surrey and also had a London house at 21 Hill Street.