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Frederick Smith, 2nd Earl of Birkenhead

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(Redirected from Frederick Winston Furneaux Smith, 2nd Earl of Birkenhead) British biographer and Member of the House of Lords (1907–1975) For other people with similar names, see Frederick Smith.

The Right HonourableThe Earl of Birkenhead
Lord-in-Waiting
Government Whip
In office
5 November 1951 – 28 January 1955
MonarchsGeorge VI
Elizabeth II
Prime MinisterWinston Churchill
Preceded byThe Lord Burden
Succeeded byThe Lord Chesham
In office
12 July 1938 – 10 May 1940
MonarchGeorge VI
Prime MinisterNeville Chamberlain
Preceded byThe Earl of Munster
Succeeded byThe Viscount Clifden
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
In office
30 September 1930 – 10 June 1975
Hereditary Peerage
Preceded byThe 1st Earl of Birkenhead
Succeeded byThe 3rd Earl of Birkenhead
Personal details
BornFrederick Winston Furneaux Smith
(1907-12-07)7 December 1907
London, England
Died10 June 1975(1975-06-10) (aged 67)
Oxford, England
Political partyConservative
Spouse Sheila Berry ​(m. 1935)​
Children
Education
Writing career
Notable worksRudyard Kipling (1978)

Frederick Winston Furneaux Smith, 2nd Earl of Birkenhead (7 December 1907 – 10 June 1975) was a British biographer and Member of the House of Lords. He is best known for writing a biography of Rudyard Kipling that was suppressed by the Kipling family for many years, and which he never lived to see in print.

Background

The son of F. E. Smith, 1st Earl of Birkenhead, he born in London and known was known as Viscount Furneaux from 1922, when his father, then 1st Viscount Birkenhead, was created Earl of Birkenhead. He had two sisters, Eleanor (1902–1945) and Pamela (1914–1982). Lord Furneaux was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford. He inherited his father's peerages in 1930.

For the first three years of the Second World War, Lord Birkenhead served with a Territorial Army Anti-Tank unit. Following a course at the Staff College, Camberley, Major "Freddy" Birkenhead was assigned to the Foreign Office's Political Intelligence Department, popularly known as the Political Warfare Executive, or PWE for short. He saw action in Croatia, as second-in-command of a sub-mission headed by Randolph Churchill, under Brigadier Fitzroy Maclean's 37th Military Mission, which included Evelyn Waugh. As a result, he plays a prominent role in Waugh's diaries.

Career

Lord Birkenhead served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Lord Halifax (1938–1939), and as Lord-in-waiting to King George VI (1938–1940 and 1951–1952) and Queen Elizabeth II (1952–1955).

As a writer, Lord Birkenhead primarily authored political biographies, including books on Lord Cherwell and Lord Halifax. In the late 1940s, Lord Birkenhead was commissioned by Rudyard Kipling's daughter Elsie Bambridge to write a biography of Kipling. An agreement with Lord Birkenhead gave Bambridge control over the contents, ownership of copyright, and two-thirds of any profits. Ultimately, Bambridge did not accept Lord Birkenhead's work, and it remained unpublished through his death in 1975 and her death in 1976. The biography was finally published in 1978 with the agreement of Bambridge's heirs.

Personal life and death

In 1935, he married The Hon Sheila Berry (1913–1992), second daughter of the 1st Viscount Camrose. The couple had a son, Frederick William Robin Smith, 3rd Earl of Birkenhead, in 1936 and a daughter, Lady Juliet Margaret Smith (later Lady Juliet Townsend), in 1941. Lady Juliet served as Lady in Waiting to Princess Margaret from 1965 to 2002; her daughter Eleanor Townsend is a god-child of the Princess. Lady Juliet was made a Dame Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (DCVO) in the 2014 Birthday Honours having previously received the LVO in 1981 and was Lord Lieutenant of Northamptonshire from 1998 to 2014. She died on 29 November 2014.

Lord Birkenhead died at a nursing home in Oxford on 10 June 1975, at age 67. At the time of his death, he was working on a biography of Winston Churchill (who was his godfather); the completed portion, covering Churchill's life until 1922, was published in 1989.

Books

Arms

Coat of arms of Frederick Smith, 2nd Earl of Birkenhead
Crest
A cubit arm couped fessways vested Gules cuffed Argent the hand Proper grasping a sword erect also Argent pommel and hilt Or.
Escutcheon
Ermine on a pale Gules between four cross crosslets of the second a like cross Or.
Supporters
Dexter a griffin Or wings per fess Or and Sable, sinister a lion Azure charged on the shoulder with a crozier Or.
Motto
Faber Meæ Fortunæ

References

  1. ^ Blake, Robert (2004). "Smith, Frederick Winston Furneaux, second earl of Birkenhead (1907–1975), biographer". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/37980. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. "Eton Lives Over Its Past". Evening Standard. London. 11 February 1927. p. 9. Retrieved 8 December 2021 – via newspapers.com.
  3. "(untitled)". The Guardian. London. 1 November 1928. p. 15. Retrieved 8 December 2021 – via newspapers.com.
  4. "Birkenhead Succumbs To Long Illness". The Arizona Republic. UP. 1 October 1930. p. 23. Retrieved 8 December 2021 – via newspapers.com.
  5. ^ "Earl Of Birkenhead, At Age 67, British Political Biographer". The Evening Sun. Baltimore, Maryland. AP. 11 June 1975. p. 17. Retrieved 8 December 2021 – via newspapers.com.
  6. ^ Clew, William J. (31 December 1978). "Suppressed Biography". Hartford Courant. Hartford, Connecticut. p. 12D. Retrieved 7 December 2021 – via newspapers.com.
  7. "Birthday Honours lists 2014". gov.uk. HM Government. 14 June 2014. Retrieved 3 July 2014.
  8. The Daily Telegraph, Obituary, 4 December 2014
  9. Sexton, Michael (27 January 1990). "Yet another one on Churchill". The Sydney Morning Herald. p. 49. Retrieved 8 December 2021 – via newspapers.com.
  10. Burke's Peerage. 1959.
Political offices
Preceded byThe Earl of Munster Lord-in-waiting
1938 – 1940 		Succeeded byNew government
Preceded byNew government Lord-in-waiting
1951 – 1955 		Succeeded byThe Lord Chesham
Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded byF. E. Smith Earl of Birkenhead
1930 – 1975 		Succeeded byFrederick Smith
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