William Hillier Onslow, 4th Earl of Onslow, (7 March 1853 – 23 October 1911), was a British Conservative politician. He held several governmental positions between 1880 and 1905 and was also Governor of New Zealand between 1889 and 1892.
Background and education
Born at Old Alresford, Hampshire, Onslow was the only son of George Augustus Cranley Onslow, son of Thomas Cranley Onslow, second son of Thomas Onslow, 2nd Earl of Onslow. His mother was Mary Harriet Anne Loftus. In 1870, at the age of 17, he succeeded his great-uncle in the earldom of Onslow. He was educated at Eton and Exeter College, Oxford.
Political career, 1880–1889
Onslow briefly served as a Lord-in-waiting (government whip in the House of Lords) under the Earl of Beaconsfield (Benjamin Disraeli) between February and April 1880 and held the same position under Lord Salisbury between 1886 and 1887, and later served under Salisbury as Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies between 1887 and 1888 (in which post he was vice president of the first Colonial Conference in April 1887) and as Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade between 1888 and 1889.
Governor of New Zealand, 1889–1892
In November 1888 Onslow was appointed Governor of New Zealand. As a result of the economic downturn in the late 1880s, he had sought a salaried position as a colonial governor. At 35, he was the youngest governor of New Zealand since George Grey was appointed in 1845 and the first since Robert FitzRoy in 1843 to have no previous experience in a vice-regal position. The New Zealand government had recently cut allowances for the governor, and Onslow was able to obtain the position mainly as it was no longer attractive to more senior colonial administrators. He remained at the Board of Agriculture until the government fell in 1905. From 1905 to 1911 he was Lord Chairman of Committees of the House of Lords. He was also President of the Royal Statistical Society from 1905 to 1906. His death was considered a loss to the [RSPB].
Family
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Lord Onslow married The Hon. Florence Coulston Gardner, daughter of Alan Gardner, 3rd Baron Gardner, in 1875. They had two sons and two daughters:
- Richard William Alan Onslow, 5th Earl of Onslow (23 August 1876 – 9 June 1945), married Violet Marcia Catherine Warwick Bampfylde, the only daughter of Coplestone Bampfylde, 3rd Baron Poltimore, on 22 February 1906.
- Lady Gwendolen Florence Mary Onslow (22 July 1881 – 16 February 1966), married Rupert Edward Cecil Lee Guinness (later Earl of Iveagh).
- Lady Dorothy Evelyn Augusta Onslow (7 February 1885 – 2 February 1976), married Edward Frederick Lindley Wood (later Baron Irwin and Earl of Halifax) on 21 September 1909.
- Victor Alexander Herbert Huia Onslow (13 November 1890 – 27 June 1922), married Muriel Wheldale on 3 February 1919. He was the first child of a governor to be born in the country; hence the Māori name Huia. He suffered a spinal accident when he dived into an Austrian lake in the Dolomites on 16 July 1911.
Lord Onslow died at Hendon, Middlesex, in October 1911, aged 58. He was succeeded in the earldom by his elder son, Richard. The Dowager Countess of Onslow died in August 1934.