Henry de Worms, 1st Baron Pirbright - Biography

Henry de Worms, 1st Baron Pirbright PC, DL, JP, FRS (20 October 1840 – 6 January 1903), known before his elevation to the peerage in 1895 as Baron Henry de Worms, was a British Conservative politician.

Background and education

The third son of Solomon Benedict de Worms, Hereditary Baron of the Austrian Empire, and Henrietta Samuel, de Worms was educated at King's College, London. He was called to the Bar, Inner Temple, in 1863, and became a fellow of King's College in the same year.

Political career

de Worms served as Conservative Member of Parliament for Greenwich from 1880 to 1885 and for Liverpool East Toxteth from 1885 to 1895 and held office under Lord Salisbury as Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade from 1886 to 1888 and as Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies from 1888 to 1892. He was also the British Plenipotentiary and President of the Conference on Sugar Bounties in 1888, and later served as a Commissioner for the Patriotic Fund. He was appointed a Privy Counsellor in 1888 and raised to the peerage as Baron Pirbright, of Pirbright in the County of Surrey, in 1895. He was also elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1889. His publications include England's Policy in the East, The Earth and its Mechanism, The Austro-Hungarian Empire and Memoirs of Count Beust.

Family

In 1864 Lord Pirbright married Fanny, eldest daughter of Baron von Todesco. They had three daughters. In 1887 he married Sarah, daughter of Sir Benjamin Samuel Phillips. Born Jewish, he was an active member of the Jewish community until he married a Christian woman. He then dissociated himself entirely from Judaism, and was buried at the Christian cemetery of St. Mark's in Wyke, Surrey. Lord Pirbright died in January 1903, aged 62. The barony became extinct on his death as he had no sons. His second wife died in November 1914.

External links

• The Pirbright Tomb