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The Right HonourableThe Viscount CaveGCMG PC
Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain
In office 24 October 1922 – 22 January 1924
Prime Minister	Bonar Law Stanley Baldwin
Preceded by	The Viscount Birkenhead
Succeeded by	The Viscount Haldane
In office 6 November 1924 – 28 March 1928
Prime Minister	Stanley Baldwin
Preceded by	The Viscount Haldane
Succeeded by	The Lord Hailsham
Home Secretary
In office 11 December 1916 – 14 January 1919
Prime Minister	David Lloyd George
Preceded by	Herbert Samuel
Succeeded by	Edward Shortt
Member of Parliament for Kingston-upon-Thames
In office 8 February 1906 – 14 December 1918
Preceded by	Thomas Skewes-Cox
Succeeded by	John Campbell
Personal details
Born	23 February 1856 (1856-02-23) London
Died	29 March 1928(1928-03-29) (aged 72) St Anne's, Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset
Nationality	British
Political party	Conservative
Spouse	Estella Cave, Countess Cave of Richmond ​ ​(m. 1885)​
Alma mater	St John's College, Oxford

George Cave, 1st Viscount Cave, GCMG, PC (23 February 1856 – 29 March 1928) was a British lawyer and Conservative politician. He was Home Secretary under David Lloyd George from 1916 to 1919 and served as Lord Chancellor from 1922 to 1924 and again from 1924 to 1928.

Background and education

Cave was born in London, the son of Thomas Cave, Member of Parliament for Barnstaple, and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Jasper Shallcrass. He was educated at the Merchant Taylors' School, London and St John's College, Oxford. After being called to the bar in 1880, he practised as a barrister for a number of years, being made King's Counsel and recorder of Guildford in 1904.

Political career

In 1906 he was elected Conservative Member of Parliament for the Kingston Division of Surrey, was appointed Vice-Lieutenant of Surrey in 1907, and a member of the Royal Commission on Land Purchase in 1908. Having served as standing counsel to the University of Oxford for two years as well as attorney general to the Prince of Wales, in 1915 Cave was appointed solicitor general and knighted. The following year, he was made Home Secretary in Lloyd George's coalition government, a post he held for three years. As Home Secretary, he introduced the Representation of the People Act 1918 and he was very prominent in the debates in the House of Commons on the police strike of August 1918.

In 1918, Sir George Cave was ennobled as Viscount Cave, of Richmond in the County of Surrey. The following year, he became a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, and chaired a number of commissions, including the Southern Rhodesian commission and the Munitions Enquiry Tribunal. In 1922, he became Lord Chancellor in Bonar Law's government, and again served in this capacity in Baldwin's first administration. He chaired the post war report that led to cuts to the minimum wages and regulation of collective bargaining, recommended by the Cave Committee in 1922.

Having been appointed Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG) in 1921, he was also elected Chancellor of the University of Oxford in 1925, defeating former Liberal Prime Minister H. H. Asquith. Asquith was deeply upset by the defeat, partly because he felt that Cave, an old friend, should not have stood against him.

Roy Jenkins, an admirer of Asquith, described him as the least distinguished Lord Chancellor in the first three decades of the twentieth century.

Family

Lord Cave married Annie Estella Sarah Penfold Mathews, daughter of Captain William Withey Mathews and Jane Wallas (née Penfold), and sister of Sir Lloyd Mathews, in 1885. They had met by 1880, and he proposed to her in 1883. Lord and Lady Cave had three sons and one daughter, although each of them died on the day they were born, or soon afterwards. Their names were Ralph Wallas (1885), Lloyd George (1893), Honor Elizabeth (1895), and Mathew George (1899). They are all buried at St. Mary's in Richmond. Cave died in March 1928, aged 72, at St Ann's, Burnham, Somerset, and was buried at Berrow in the same county - his wife's brother-in-law, W. K. Laurence, had been buried there only a week or so earlier, after dying tragically after a fall at Clevedon.

On the day of his death his resignation as Lord Chancellor had been accepted and it had been announced that he would be created an earl, and so his widow, Estella, was created Countess Cave of Richmond, with remainder to heirs male of her body.

Having no children who lived to adulthood, the viscountcy became extinct on Lord Cave's death, as did the earldom when his widow died in 1938.

Coat of arms of George Cave, 1st Viscount Cave

Crest A greyhound sejant Or pellettée, resting the dexter leg on a cross moline Gules. Escutcheon Or fretty Azure a cross moline within a bordure nebuly Gules on a chief of the last two greyhounds' heads erased of the first. Motto Cave Deus Videt (Beware God Sees)

References

1. "No. 27989". The London Gazette. 25 January 1907. p. 570.
2. "No. 29360". The London Gazette. 9 November 1915. p. 11043.
3. "No. 29390". The London Gazette. 3 December 1915. p. 12054.
4. Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1922). "Cave, George Cave, 1st Viscount" . Encyclopædia Britannica (12th ed.). London & New York: The Encyclopædia Britannica Company.
5. "No. 31013". The London Gazette. 15 November 1918. p. 13492.
6. Cave Committee, Report to the Ministry of Labour of the Committee Appointed to Enquire into the Working and Effects of the Trade Board Acts (1922) Cmd 1645
7. Jenkins, Roy Asquith Collins, 1964, p.511
8. Jenkins p.511
9. Mallet, Charles Edward (1931). Lord Cave: A Memoir. London: John Murray. OCLC 2673381.
10. "No. 33383". The London Gazette. 11 May 1928. p. 3332.
11. Debrett's Peerage. 1921.

Further reading

• Mallet, Charles Edward (1931). Lord Cave: A Memoir. London: John Murray. OCLC 2673381.
• Hesilrige, Arthur G. M. (1921). Debrett's Peerage and Titles of courtesy. London: Dean & Son. p. 187.

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by George Cave
• Portraits of George Cave at the National Portrait Gallery, London
• Europeana Collections 1914-1918 makes 425,000 First World War items from European libraries available online, including relevant volumes of The Cave Papers

v t e Home secretaries of the United Kingdom
Shelburne Townshend North Temple Sydney Grenville Dundas Portland Pelham Yorke Hawkesbury Spencer Liverpool Ryder Sidmouth Peel Sturges Bourne Lansdowne Peel Melbourne Duncannon Wellington Goulburn Russell Normanby Graham Grey Walpole Palmerston Grey Walpole Sotheron-Estcourt Lewis Grey Walpole Hardy Bruce Lowe Cross Harcourt Cross Childers Matthews Asquith Ridley Ritchie Akers-Douglas Gladstone Churchill McKenna Simon Samuel Cave Shortt Bridgeman Henderson Joynson-Hicks Clynes Samuel Gilmour Simon Hoare Anderson Morrison Somervell Chuter Ede Maxwell-Fyfe Lloyd George Butler Brooke Soskice Jenkins Callaghan Maudling Carr Jenkins Rees Whitelaw Brittan Hurd Waddington Baker K. Clarke Howard Straw Blunkett C. Clarke Reid Smith Johnson May Rudd Javid Patel Braverman Shapps Braverman Cleverly Cooper

v t e Lord high chancellors of Great Britain (1707–present)
Great Britain	Speakers of the House of Lords Heads of the Judiciary in England and Wales Members of the Cabinet Cowper in commission Harcourt Cowper Macclesfield in commission King Talbot Hardwicke in commission Northington Pratt Yorke in commission Bathurst Thurlow in commission Thurlow In Commission James Eyre/William Henry Ashurst/Sir Beaumont Hotham Loughborough
United Kingdom	Speakers of the House of Lords Heads of the Judiciary in England and Wales Members of the Cabinet Loughborough Eldon Erskine Eldon Lyndhurst Brougham Lyndhurst In Commission: Pepys/Shadwell/Bosanquet Cottenham Lyndhurst Cottenham In Commission: Langdale/Shadwell/Role Truro St Leonards Cranworth Chelmsford Campbell Westbury Cranworth Chelmsford Cairns Hatherley Selborne Cairns Selborne Halsbury Herschell Halsbury Herschell Halsbury Loreburn Haldane Buckmaster Finlay Birkenhead Cave Haldane Cave D. Hailsham Sankey D. Hailsham Maugham Caldecote Simon Jowitt Simonds Kilmuir Dilhorne Gardiner Q. Hailsham Elwyn-Jones Q. Hailsham Havers Mackay Irvine Falconer Secretaries of State for Constitutional Affairs 2003–2007 Falconer Secretaries of State for Justice 2007–present Falconer Straw Clarke Grayling Gove Truss Lidington Gauke Buckland Raab Lewis Raab Chalk Mahmood
List of lord chancellors and lord keepers

v t e Cabinet of Bonar Law (1922–1923)

Prime Minister Leader of the House of Commons Bonar Law (1922–1923) Lord Chancellor Lord Cave (1922–1923) Lord President of the Council Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Lord Salisbury (1922–1923) Chancellor of the Exchequer Stanley Baldwin (1922–1923) Home Secretary William Bridgeman (1922–1923) Foreign Secretary Leader of the House of Lords Lord Curzon (1922–1923) Secretary of State for the Colonies The Duke of Devonshire (1922–1923) Secretary of State for War Lord Derby (1922–1923) Secretary of State for India Lord Peel (1922–1923) Secretary of State for Scotland Lord Novar (1922–1923) First Lord of the Admiralty Leo Amery (1922–1923) President of the Board of Trade Sir Phillip Lloyd-Greame (1922–1923) Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries Sir Robert Sanders (1922–1923) President of the Board of Education E. F. L. Wood (1922–1923) Minister of Labour Sir Anderson Montague-Barlow (1922–1923) Minister of Health Arthur Griffith-Boscawen (1922–1923) Neville Chamberlain (1923)

v t e Chancellors of the University of Oxford
1224–1400 Robert Grosseteste Ralph Cole Ralph de Maidstone Richard Batchden Ralph Cole Simon de Bovill John de Rygater Richard of Chichester Ralph de Heyham Simon de Bovill Gilbert de Biham Ralph de Sempringham William de Lodelawe Richard de S. Agatha Thomas de Cantilupe Henry de Cicestre Nicholas de Ewelme Thomas Bek William de Bosco Eustace de Normanville John de Pontissara Henry de Stanton William de Montfort Roger de Rowell William Pikerell Hervey de Saham Robert Winchelsey William de Kingescote John de Ludlow John of Monmouth Simon of Ghent Henry Swayne Roger de Martival Peter de Medburn Roger Weseham Richard de Clyve James de Cobeham Walter de Wetheringsete Simon de Faversham Walter Burdun William de Bosco Henry de Maunsfeld Walter Giffard Henry de Maunsfeld Henry Harclay Richard de Nottingham John Lutterell Henry Gower William de Alburwyke Thomas Hotham Ralph of Shrewsbury Roger de Streton Nigel de Wavere Ralph Radyn Hugh de Willoughby Robert de Stratford Robert Paynink John Leech William de Skelton Walter de Scauren William de Bergeveney John de Northwode William de Hawkesworth William de Palmorna Humphrey de Cherlton Lewis Charlton John de Hotham John Renham John de Hotham Richard FitzRalph Nicholas de Aston John de Renham John de Echingham Adam de Toneworth William Courtenay Adam de Toneworth William de Heytisbury William de Remmyngton John Turke Adam de Toneworth Robert Aylesham Robert Rygge William Berton Robert Rygge Nicholas Hereford William Rugg Robert Rygge Thomas Brightwell Thomas Cranley Robert Rygge Ralph Redruth Thomas Prestbury Robert Arlyngton Thomas Hyndeman Philip Repyngdon Henry Beaufort Thomas Hyndeman
1400–1500 Philip Repyngdon Robert Hallam Richard Courtenay Richard Ullerston William Clynt Thomas Prestbury William Sulburge Richard Courtenay William Sulburge Richard Courtenay William Sulburge William Barrow Richard Snetisham William Barrow Thomas Clare William Barrow Thomas Clare Walter Trengof Robert Colman Walter Trengof Thomas Rodborne Walter Trengof John Castell Thomas Chase Gilbert Kymer Thomas Bourchier John Carpenter Richard Praty John Norton Richard Roderham William Grey Thomas Gascoigne Henry Sever Thomas Gascoigne Robert Thwaits Gilbert Kymer George Neville Thomas Chaundler George Neville Lionel Woodville William Dudley John Russell John Morton
1500 onwards William Smyth Richard Mayew William Warham John Longland Richard Cox John Mason Reginald Pole Henry Fitzalan, 12th Earl of Arundel John Mason Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester Thomas Bromley Christopher Hatton Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset Richard Bancroft Thomas Egerton, 1st Viscount Brackley William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke William Seymour, 2nd Duke of Somerset Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke Vacant Oliver Cromwell Richard Cromwell William Seymour, 2nd Duke of Somerset Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon Gilbert Sheldon James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormond James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde Charles Butler, 1st Earl of Arran John Fane, 7th Earl of Westmorland George Lee, 3rd Earl of Lichfield Frederick North, Lord North William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland William Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby Robert Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury George Goschen, 1st Viscount Goschen George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston George Cave, 1st Viscount Cave Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon Edward Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton Roy Jenkins, Lord Jenkins of Hillhead Chris Patten, Lord Patten of Barnes
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