George Boscawen, 9th Viscount Falmouth


George Hugh Boscawen, 9th Viscount Falmouth, DL is a British peer and landowner. His subsidiary titles include Baron Le Despencer and Baron Boscawen-Rose. A former officer in the Coldstream Guards, he was Lord Lieutenant of Cornwall from 1977 to 1994.
He also has a claim to the Barony of Burghersh, abeyant since 1449.

Life

Boscawen was the second son of Evelyn Hugh John Boscawen, 8th Viscount Falmouth, by his marriage to Mary Margaret Desiree, daughter of Hon. Frederick George Lindley Meynell, High Sheriff of Staffordshire in 1910, son of the politician Charles Wood, 1st Viscount Halifax. Mary's mother, Lady Mary Susan Felice, was daughter of the art collector and historian Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford.
Like his younger brother Robert, he was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, and from 1939 to 1946 served in the Coldstream Guards, rising to the rank of Captain. During the Second World War he saw active service in Italy. On 21 May 1940 Boscawen's elder brother, Hon Evelyn Frederick Vere Boscawen, also a Coldstream Guards officer, was killed in action, leaving him as heir to the family titles and estates.
In 1962, he succeeded as Viscount Falmouth on the death of his father. In 1968 he was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant for Cornwall, then in 1977 became the county's Lord Lieutenant, retiring only in 1994 on reaching the age of seventy-five.
In 1982, as chairman of the governing body of Truro Cathedral School, Falmouth took the decision to close the school, because of "deteriorating finances". In a letter to parents he stated that this decision had been taken "with very great reluctance, after exploring all possible alternatives".

Family

Boscawen married Elizabeth Price Browne who was a Deputy Lieutenant for Cornwall and an Officer of the Order of the British Empire; on 9 May 1953. They have four sons:
His heir is his oldest son, the Hon Evelyn George Boscawen. All three generations, grandfather, father and son, are Etonians and live on and manage the Tregothnan estate.