Constituency : Flintshire 1861-86
Richard came in at Flintshire to replace the deceased Thomas Lloyd-Moston.
Richard was a younger son of the Marquess of Westminster and brother of Hugh, the MP for Chester. He was educated at Westminster and Cambridge. He travelled widely and was in China during the Second Opium War.
In 1869 Richard headed an international committee looking at the feasibility of a Channel Tunnel.In 1870 Richard became a director of the London and North Western Railway and was chairman for twenty years from 1891. He introduced a company savings bank and pension schemes.Richard was a genial and beneficient landlord who spent a huge amount on refurbishing the farms on his estate and often remitted rents in hard times. He was fond of hunting and yachting.
Richard was made Vice-Chamberlain of the Royal Household by Gladstone, holding the post until 1874. He was Chief Whip throughout Gladstone's second ministry where he had to deal with the ongoing obstruction tactics of Parnell's Nationalists . This made him extremely hostile to Home Rule and he resigned his seat in protest before the crucial vote.
The Liberals retained the seat at the by-election and Richard went to the Lords as Baron Stalbridge. He became one of the leaders of the Liberal Unionist party. In later years he experienced financial difficulties and had to sell a large proportion of his estates in 1905.
He died in 1912 aged 75.
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